The women of Israel

V

p. 156.

THE

WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

BY

GEACE AGUILAK,

AUTHOR or " WOMAN'S FRIENDSHIP," " MOTHER'S RECOMPENSE." " VALK OF

CEDARS," ETC.

TWO VOLUMES IN ONE.

NEW YORK :
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1, 8, AND 3 BOND STREET.

1887.

Univ.

NEW COLLEGE
LIBRARY

DEC 0 4 2002
Univ. of Toronto

CONTENTS OF VOLUME 1.

ft en

ISTUI Ducnos , i 7

FIRST PERIOD.

WIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS.

CHAPTER I.

Ev« 19

CHAPTER II.

Saran 44

CHAPTER III.

Rebekah 76

CHAPTER [V.

Leah and Rachel .107

SECOND PERIOD.

THE EXODUS AND THE LAW.

CHAPTER I.

Egyptian Captivity, and Jochebed .... 134

CHAPTER II.

The Exodus.— Mothers of Israel 150

CHAPTER III.

LEWS for Wives in Israel . . . . . . .158

CHAPTER IV.

La<Ts for Widows and Daughters in Israel . . 173

CHAPTER V.

Miid Servants in Israel, and Sundry other Laws .... 190

VJ CONTENTS.

r»oi
THIRD PERIOD.

BETWEEN THE DELIVERY OF THE LAW, AND TTO MONARCHY-
CHAPTER I.

Miriam 203

CHAPTER II.

Tabernacle Workers.— Caleb's Daughter . , , . .211

CHAPTER III.

Deborah . 218

CHAPTER IV.

Wife of Manoah .... .... 227

CHAPTER V.

Naomi ...... .... 236

CHATTSU* «*

Hannah ..... . $64

TIT E

WOMEN OF ISEAEL

INTRODUCTION.

AMONG the many valuable works relative to woman's capa
bilities, influence, and mission, which in the present age are sc
continually appearing, one still seems wanting. The field has,
indeed, been entered ; detached notices of the women of Israel
the female biography of Scripture, have often formed interesting
portions of those works, where woman is the subject ; but all the
fruit has not been gathered : much yet remains, which, thrown
together, would form a history as instructive as interesting, as
full of warning as example, and tending to lead our female
youth to the sacred volume, not only as their guide to duty,
their support in toil, their comfort in affliction, but as a true
and perfect mirror of themselves.

To desert the Bible for its commentators ; never to peruse its
pages without notes of explanation : to regard it as a work
which of itself is incomprehensible, is, indeed, a practice as hurtfu1
as injudicious. Sent as a message of love to our own souls,
as written and addressed, not to nations alone, but as the voice
of God to individuals — whispering to each of us that which we
most need ; thus it is we should first regard and venerate it
This accomplished, works tending to elucidate its glorious and
consoling truths, to make manifest its simple lessons of character,
as well as precept; to bring yet closer to the youthful and
aspiring heart, the poetry, the beauty, the eloquence, the
appealing tenderness of its sacred pages, may prove of essential
service. In this hope, to bring clearly before the women of
Israel all that they owe to the word of God, all tha*. it may stil
be to them, the presant task is undertaken.

8 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

We are far from asserting that this has not been attempted^
and for the larger portion of the sex, accomplished before.
Religion is the foundation and mainspring of every work which
has been written for the use and improvement of woman. Female
biographers of scripture have, we believe, often appeared ; though
the characters of the Old Testament are so briefly and imperfectly
sketched, compared to those of the New, that but little pleasure
or improvement could be derived from their perusal. Yet still,
with the writings of Sandford, Ellis, and Hamilton before us,
each exhibiting its authoress so earnest, so eloquent in her cause,
with " woman's mission" marked so simply, yet so forcibly, in
the little volume of that name, has not woman of every race, and
every creed, all sufficient to teach her her duty and herself?

We would say she had ; yet for the women of Israel some
thing still more is needed. The authors above mentioned are
Christians themselves, and write for the Christian world. Edu
cation and nationality compel them to believe that " Christianity
is the sole source of female excellence." To Christianity alone
they owe their present station in the world : their influence,
their equality with man, their spiritual provision in this life,
and hopes of immortality in the next. Nay more, that the
value and dignity of womari s character would never have been
known, but for the religion of Jesus ; that pure, loving, self-deny
ing doctrines, were unknown to woman ; she knew not even her
relation to the Eternal ; dared not look upon Him as her Father,
Consoler, and Saviour, till the advent of Christianity. We grant
that the Gentiles knew it not, till the Bible became more
generally known, till the Eternal, in His infinite mercy, permitted
a partial knowledge of Himself to spread over the world — alike
to prepare the Gentile for that day, when we shall all know
Him as He is, and to render the trial of His people's faith and
constancy yet more terribly severe. We feel neither anger nor
uncharitableness towards those who would thus deny to Israel
those very privileges which were ours, ages before they became
theirs ; and which, in fact, have descended from us to them.
Yet we cannot pass such assertion unanswered, lest from the
very worth and popularity of those works in which it is promul
gated, the young and thoughtless daughter of Israel may
believe it really has foundation, and look no further than the
pag'e she reads.

How or whence originated the charge that the law of Moses

INTRODUCTION.

lank the Hebrew female to the lowest state of degradation,
placed her on a level with slaves or heathens, and denied her all
mental and spiritual enjoyment, we know not : yet certain it is
that this most extraordinary and unfounded idea obtains credence
even in this enlightened age. The word of God at once proves
its falsity ; for it is impossible to read the Mosaic law without
the true and touching conviction, that the female Hebrew was
even more an object of the tender and soothing care of the
Eternal than the male. The thanksgiving in the Israelite
morning prayer, on which so much stress is laid, as a proof how
little woman is regarded, is but a false and foolish reasoning on
the subject ; almost, in truth, too trivial for regard.

The very first consequence of woman's sin was to render her
in physical and mental strength, inferior to man ; tc expose her
to suffering more continued, and more acute ; to prevent her
obtaining those honors and emoluments of which man thinks so
much ; to restrain her path to a more lowly and domestic,
though not a less hallowed sphere; and, all this considered,
neither scorn towards the sex, nor too much haughtiness for
themselves, actuate the thanksgiving which by our opponents is
brought forward against us. It was but one of those blessings
in which the pious Israelite thanks God for all things, demand
ing neither notice nor reproof.

To the Gentile assertion that the Talmud has originated the
above-mentioned blessing, and commanded or inculcated the
moral and mental degradation of woman, we reply that even if
t do, which we do not believe it does, its commands are wholly
disregarded, and its abolishment is not needed to raise the
Hebrew female to that station assigned her in the word of God,
and which through many centuries she has been permitted,
without reproof or question, to enjoy. The Eternal's provision
for her temporal and spiritual happiness is proved in His
unalterable word ; and therefore no Hebrew can believe that He
•would issue another law for her degradation and abasement. If,
indeed, there are such laws, they must have been compiled at
A time when persecution had. so brutalized and lowered the
intellect of man that he partook the savage barbarity of the
nations around him, and of the age in which he lived ; when
the law of his God had, as a natural consequence, become
obscured, and the Hebrew female shared the same rude and
savage treatment which was the lot of all the lower classes of

10 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

women in the feudal ages. The protection, the glory, the
civilizing influence of chivalry extended, in its first establish
ment, but to the baronial classes. We see no proofs of the
humanizing and elevating influence of Christianity, either on
man or woman, till the reformation opened the BIBLE, the whole
BIBLE, to the nations at large ; when civilization gradually
followed. If, then, the situation of even Christian women was
so uncertain, and but too often so degraded, for nearly fourteen
centuries after the advent of Jesus, who his followers declare was
the first to teach them their real position — was it very remark
able that the vilified and persecuted Hebrew should ha\e in a
degree forgotten his nationality, his immortal and glorious
heritage, and shared in the barbarity around him ? Granting
for the moment that such was the case (but we by no means
believe it was), if the degradation, mentally and morally, of the
Hebrew female, ever did become part of the Jewish law, it was
when man was equally degraded, and the blessed word of God
hid from him.

The situation of many of the Hebrews at the present day
proves this. In but too many parts of the world the Israelites
are still the subjects of scorn, hatred, and persecution : and
their condition is, in consequence, the lowest and most awfully
degraded in the scale of man. But it is not to woman that
degradation and slavery are confined ; as, were it a portion
of the law of Moses, would inevitably be the case. It is the
consequence of cruelty, of abasement in social treatment ; yet
even here, when mind, principle, honor, all seem overthrown
froi.i such brutalizing influence, the affections retain their power.

Whatever of spiritual hope, of human privileges, the word of
God bestows on man, and to which the mind, darkened and
despairing from the horrors of persecution, may yet be open,
are shared by the Hebrew wife, and imparted by the Hebrew
mother.

Were it a portion of the law of Moses to enslave and degrade
us, how is it that we do not see this law adhered to and obeyed,
as well as others claiming the same divine origin ? Neither
Christianity nor civilization would alter or improve our condition,
were it indeed such as it has been represented. The Hebrew
ever loves, protects, and reverences his female relative ; and if,
indeed, he do not — if he deny her all share in immortality, and.
in consequence, thinks she has no need of religion now, nor hop«

INTRODUCTION. 11

hereafter, it is because the remnants of barbarism, ignorance,
and superstition remain, to have blinded both his spiritual and
mental eye ; yet whatever he may be accused of believing, his
acts deny the belief. Why is he so anxious that his wife and
daughters should adhere to every law, attend to every precept
which he believes the law of God ? If they have no soul, no
portion in the world to come, it surely cannot signify how they
act, or what they believe in this ? Why are they blotted from
the minds and hearts of their relatives, if, as it may sometimes
happen, they intermarry with the stranger ? If they have no
spiritual responsibility, no claim, no part in the law of God, why
should they be blamed and shunned, if they desert it for another ?
But it is idle to follow the argument further. The charge is
either altogether false, or based on such contradictory and
groundless report, as to render it of little consequence, save as it
affects us in the eyes of those who uphold, that till Christianity
was promulgated woman knew not her own station either
towards God or man.

Simply to deny this assertion, to affirm, that instead of degrad
ing and enslaving, the Jewish law exalted, protected, and pro
vided for woman, teaching her to look up to God, not as a severe
master and awful judge, but as her Father, her Defender, her
Deliverer when oppressed, her Witness in times of false accusa
tion, her Consoler and Protector when fatherless, widowed — aye,
as the tender and loving Sovereign, who spared the young bride
the anguish of separation from her beloved : merely to affirm,
that with such laws woman was equally a subject of divine love
as she is now, would not avail us much. The women of Israel
must themselvej arise, and prove the truth of what we urge —
by their own conduct, their own belief, their own ever-acting
and ever-influencing religion, prove without doubt or question
that we need not Christianity to teach us our mission — prove
that our duties, our privileges, were assigned us from the very
beginning of the world, confirmed by that law to which we still
adhere, and will adhere for ever, and manifested by the whole
history of the Bible.

A new era is dawning for us. Persecution and intolerance
have in so many lands ceased to predominate, that Israel may
once more breathe in freedom ; the law need no longer be
preached in darkness, and obeyed in secret ; the voice of man
need no longer be the vehicle of instruction from father to son,

12 THE WOMEN OF ISftAEL.

mingling with it unconsciously human opinions, till those opi
nions could scarcely be severed from the word of God, and by
degrees so dimmed its lustre, as to render its comprehension an
obscure and painful task. This need no longer be. The Bible
may be perused in freedom ; the law may be publicly explained
and preached to all who will attend. A spirit of inquiry, of
patriotism, of earnestness in seeking to know the Lord, and obey
Him according to His word, is springing up in lieu of the stag
nating darkness, the appalling indifference, which had reigned
so long. Persecution never decreased our numbers. As the
bush which burned without consuming, so was Israel in those
blood-red ages of intolerance and butchery. In the very heart
of the most catholic kingdom — amongst her senate, her warriors,
her artisans — aye, even her monks and clergy — Judaism lurked
unconsumed by the fires ever burning round. The spirit was
ever awake and active, ready to endure martyrdom, but not to
forswear that God whose witnesses they were. Persecution was
a crisis in our History ; prosperity the reaction ; and from that
reaction the natural consequence was the gradual rise, growth,
and influence of indifference. Indifference, however, has but its
appointed time : and Israel is springing up once more the
stronger, nobler, more spiritually enlightened, from his long and
waveless sleep. Free to assert their right as immortal children
of the living God, let not the women of Israel be backward in
proving they, too, have a Rock of Strength, a Refuge of Love ;
that they, too, have a station to uphold, and a "mission" to
perform, not alone as daughters, wives, and mothers, but as
witnesses of that faith which first raised, cherished, and defended
them — witnesses of that God who has called them His, and who
has so repeatedly sanctified the emotions peculiar to their sex, by
graciously comparing the love he bears us, as yet deeper than a
mother's for her child, a wife's for her husband, having compas
sion for his people, as on a " woman forsaken and grieved in
spirit." "Can a woman forget her sucking ohild, that she
should not have compassion on the son of her travail ; yea,
she may forget, yet will I not forget thee." " As a mother
cx>mforteth her children, so will I comfort thee."

Were not these relations holy and sanctified in the sight of the
Tx>rd, would He use them as figurative of His long suffering love ?
Many terms, similar to those above quoted, prove, without a
shadow of doubt, the tender compassion with which He segarded

INTRODUCTION. 13

woman long before He used such terras to figure His compjw-
sionating love towards Israel, when sinfulness called forth His
long averted wrath.

Let us then endeavor to convince the nations of the high pri
vileges we enjoy, in common with our fathers, brothers, and
husbands, as the first-born of the Lord, by the peculiar sanctity,
spirituality, and inexpressible consolation of ou» belief. Let us
not, as women of Israel, be content with the mere performance
of domestic, social, and individual duties, but vivify and lighten
them by the rays of eternal love and immortal hope, which
beam upon us from the pages of the Bible. A religion of love
is indeed necessary to woman, yet more so than to man. Even
in her happiest lot there must be a void in her heart, which ever-
acting piety alone can fill ; and to her whose portion is to suffer,
whose lot is lonely, O what misery must be hers, unless she can
lean upon her God, and draw from His word the blessed convic
tion that His love, His tenderness, are hers, far beyond the feeble
conception of earth ; and that whatever she may endure, however
unknown to or scorned by man, it is known to Him who smites
but in love, and has mercy even while He smites.

To realize this blessed conviction, the Bible must become
indeed the book of life to the female descendants of that nation
whose earliest history it so vividly records ; and be regarded, not
as a merely political or religious history, but as the voice of God
speaking to each individual, giving strength to the weak, en
couragement to the desponding, endurance to the patient, justice
to the wronged, and consolation unspeakable as unmeasurable
to the afflicted and the mourner. Do we need love ? We shall
find innumerable verses telling us, that the Lord Himself pro
claimed His attribute as " merciful and gracious, long-suffering,
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and sin ;" that " as far as the Heaven is above
the earth so great is His mercy, extending from everlasting to
everlasting." We have but to read those appeals of the Eternal
to Israel, alike in Jeremiah and Isaiah, and many of the minor
prophets — and if our hearts be not stone, they must melt before
such compassionating love, such appealing tenderness, and feet
we cannot be lonely, cannot be unloved, while such deep change
less love is ours. Do we need sympathy ? Shall we not find it
in words similar to these, " In all their afflictions He was afflicted,
and the angel of His presence saved them ! In His love and io

14 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Ilis pity He redeemed them, and He bare them, and carried
them all the days of old." Do we need patience and strength ?
Shall we not exercise it, when we have the precious promise,
" Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen
thine heart ?" Shall we droop and grieve beneath the wrongs
and false judgments of short-sighted man, when we are told the
ways of God are not those of man — that He knoweth our frame
and readeth our thoughts — that not a bodily or mental pang it
ours which He does not know and compassionate — aye, and in
His own good time will heal !

To throw together all those verses which confirm and prove
the loving-tenderness borne towards us by the Eternal, would be
an endless and a useless task. "We can but point to that ever-
flowing fount of healing waters, and assure those who have once
really tasted, and will persevere in the heavenly draught, that it
will never fail them, never change its properties, but each year
sink deeper and deeper into their souls, till at length it becomes
indeed all they need ; and they themselves will cling to it,
despite of occasional doubt and darkness, inseparable from our
souls while denizens of earth.

Nor is it only the verses containing such gracious promises,
which will yield us comfort and assistance. We may glean the
glad tidings of Eternal Love from the biographies and narratives
with which the sacred book abounds — there may be some meek
and lowly spirits amongst the female youth of Israel, who would
gladly clasp the strength and guidance which we proffer them
torn the Bible, could they believe that God, the great, the
almighty, the tremendous and awful Being (as which they have
perhaps been accustomed to regard Him), can have love and
pity for themselves, or give comfort and aid to trials, which
appear even too trivial to ask, or to excite the sympathy of man.
We would lead them to look earnestly and believingly into the
history of every woman in the Bible, and trace there the influence
of God's holy and compassionating love. We are not indeed
placed as the women of Israel before their dispersion, or as the
wives of the patriarchs before the law was given ; yet their God
is our God. It was not to a race so perfect, so gifted, so hallowed,
as to be free from all the present faults and failings of the sex
that the Lord vouchsafed His love. No, it was to woman, even
K she is now. The women of the Bible are but mirrors of our-
wjlves. And if the Eternal, in His infinite mercy, extended love,

15

eompassion, forbearance, and forgiveness unto them, we may
believe He extends them equally unto us, and draw comfort, and
encouragement, and faith from the biographies we read.

In a work entitled " The Women of Israel," some apology
perhaps, is necessary for commencing with the wives of the
patriarchs, who may not lay claim to such holy appellation. Yet,
as the chosen and beloved partners of those favored of God, from
whom Israel traces his descent, and for the sake of whose faith
and righteousness we were selected and chosen as a peculiar
people, and the law given to be our guide through earth to
heaven, we cannot consider our history complete without them ;
more particularly as their lives are so intimately blended with
their husbands ; and that in them, even yet more vividly than
at a later period, we may trace the Lord's dealings with Ilia
female children, and derive from them alike warning and support.

Eve, indeed, may not have such national claim, but if we
believe that her history, as every other part of Genesis, was
penned by the same inspired law-giver — that Moses recorded
only that which had been — we shall find much, indeed, to repay
us for lingering a while on her character and life. To the
scepticism, the cavils, the doubts, and (but too often unhappily)
the direct unbelief in the Mosaic account of the first disobedience
of man, we give no heed whatever. We must either believe in
the Pentateuch or deny it. There can be no intermediate path.
The whole must be true or none. It is not because much may
appear obscure, or even contradictory in the sacred narrative,
that we are to pronounce it false, or mystify and poetize it as an
allegory.

We are simply to believe, and endeavor to act on that belief.
So much is there ever passing around us that we cannot solve ;
our thoughts, in their furthest flight, are so soon checked, can
penetrate so little into the wonders of man and nature, that it
appears extraordinary how man can doubt and deny, because he
cannot understand. In this case, however — the history of Eve
— truth is so simple and clear, that we know not how it can
supply such an endless fund of argument and doubt. To remove
this groundless disbelief to endeavor to render the narrative
clear and simple to the female youth of Israel, and, even through
Eve's sad yet consoling history, to prove to them the deep love
borne towards us from the very first of our creation by our

gracious God, must be our apology, if apology be needed, foi

ry nrt

logy,

16 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

commencing a work entitled " The Women of Israel," with our
general mother.

Beginning, then, from the very beginning, some degree of
order is requisite in the arrangement of our subject. Our aim
being to evince to the nations and to our own hearts, tho
privileges, alike temporal and eternal, which were ours from the
very commencement — to prove that we have no need of Christi
anity, or the examples of the females in the Gospel, to raise us
to an equality with man — to demonstrate our duties and secure
us consolation here or salvation hereafter — the word of God
must be alike our ground-work and our guide. From the past
history which that unerring guide presents, our present duties
and responsibilities, and our future destiny, will alike be revealed.
In a simple biography each life is a sufficient division ; but,
with the exception of the wives of the patriarchs and one or two
more, we have scarcely sufficient notice of individuals to illus
trate our design by regarding them separately. There appear,
therefore, seven periods in the history of the women of Israel,
which demand our attention.

First Period — the Wives of the Patriarchs, including Eve,
Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel.

Second Period — the Exodus, and the Law considered as
affecting the condition and establishing the privileges of women.

Third Period — Women of Israel between the establishment
of the Law and the authority of the Kings, comprising sketches
of Miriam, Deborah, the wife of Manoah, Naomi, and Hannah.

Fourth Period — Women of Israel during the continuation of
the Kingdom, comprising, amongst other sketches, Michal, Abi
gail, the Shunammite, and Huldah.

Fifth Period — Babylonish Captivity, including the life of
Esther.

Sixth Period — the War and Dispersion, and their effects on
the condition and privileges of women in Israel.

Seventh Period — Women of Israel in the Present time, as
influenced by the history of the Past.

For five of these periods, then, we perceive the word of God
can be our only guide, and this at once marks our history as
sacred, not profane. If, therefore, there should be parts which
resembVa more a religious essay than female biography, we
reply, that to inculcate religion, the vital spirit of religion, is the
sole intention of these pages.

INIRODUCTION. 17

We wish to infuse the spirit of truth and patriotism, of
nationality, and yet of universal love, in the hearts of the young
daughters of Israel ; and we know of no means more likely,
under the divine blessing, to accomplish this, than to bring
before them, as vividly and engagingly as we can, the never-
ending love, the compassionating tenderness, the unchanging
sympathy, alike in our joys and in our sorrows, manifested by
the Eternal so touchingly and simply in the history of our
female ancestors, — to lead them to know Him and love Him,
not only through the repeated promises, but through the narra
tives of His word, and to glory in those high privileges which
as children, retainers and promulgators of His holy law, are
ours, over and above every other nation, past or present, in
the history of the world !

FIRST PERIOD.

THE WIVES OF THE PATRIARCHS.

CHAPTER I.

THE last and mightiest work of creation was completed. Man,
in bis angelic and immortal beauty, stood erect and perfect,
fresb from the hand of his Creator ; lord and possessor of the
new formed world. Though formed of the dust, earth had not,
as in the case of the inferior animals, brought him forth. Des
tined from the first to be made in the image of God, that is, to
possess an emanation of the spiritual essence, and so become a
living and immortal soul — the shrine of so glorious a possession
was created by God himself. " And God created him," He did
not "call him forth."

For man, the beautiful creation already wrought, was not suffi
cient ; and " He planted a garden eastward in Eden, filling it
with e?ery tree that was pleasant for the sight, and good for
food "—animate and inanimate creation brought together by the
Eternal in one beautiful and perfect whole. Nor was this all :
endowed with capabilities of love, happiness, and wisdom, as
much above the other animals as the angelic nature is to man.
still he needed more for the perfection of his felicity ; and God
in his infinite mercy provided for that want.

" It is not good for man to be alone," the Eternal said ; " I
will make him a help meet for him." And therefore woman
was created, and brought unto man, who received her as the
Eternal in His mercy had ordained, a being beloved above all

20 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

others, \t Lose gentler qualities and endearing sympathy should
soften his rougher and prouder nature, and " help " him in all
things " meet " for an immortal being.

The whole creation had had its origin in that Omnific Love
which CREATED TO ENJOY, — called out of darkness and chaos a
world teeming with life and beauty, that innumerable sources of
happiness might spring forth from what had before been naught ;
but woman's creation was a still greater manifestation of love
than all which had gone before it. She was created, not only
to feel happiness herself, but to make it for others ; and if that
was the design of her existence in Eden, how deeply should we
feel the solemn truth, that it is equally so now, and that woman
Las a higher and holier mission than the mere pursuit of
pleasure and individual enjoyment ; that to flutter through life
without one serious thought or aim, without a dream beyond
the present moment, without a feeling higher than temporal
gratification, or an aspiration rising beyond this world, can never
answer the purpose of her divine creation, or make her a help
meet for man. Nor is it to wives only this privilege is accorded.
Mother or sister, each has equally her appointed duty — to
endeavor so to help and influence man, that her more spiritual
and unselfish nature shall gradually be infused into him, and,
raising him above mere worldly thought and sensual pleasures,
compel him to feel that it is not indeed " good for man to be
alone," but that woman may still fulfil the office of help and
Jove for which alone she was created.

Although the Mosaic record of man's residence in Paradise is
mournfully brief, we have sufficient scriptural authority f jr lin
gering a little while on Eve's innocent career. Placed in a
garden with every capability of felicity within herself, — nature,
meditation, commune with the Almighty in thanksgiving, or
with Him direct, through the Voice which revealed the invisible
presence, the sweet blessed intercourse of kindred spirits, spring
ing from the love she bore to and received from her husband, — •
simple and imperfect as such sources of enjoyment may appear,
they were more exquisite, more perfect, than we car dream of
now.

The spirit which God had breathed within man when ho
oecame a living soul, was the likeness or image of God in which
•* made He man ;" and this spirit, or essence, enabled both
Adam and Eve to commune in close and beatified intercourse

PERIOD I. — EVE. 21

with the glorified Creator whence that essence sprang. No sin
could fling its dark shade between the soul and his God ; and
so deaden3 spiritual joy. Naught of doubt could stagnate the
love which must have been excited in their hearts towards their
Father and their God. All around and within them bore such
impress of His hand, as to excite naught but gratitude and
Jevotion. If even now, when once we have realized the love of
God and submission to His will — when once we can so put our
trust in Him as to give Him ** all our heart," and come to Him
in sorrow and in joy, convinced that He knows and loves us
better than ourselves — we experience a peace, a blessedness no
earthly tempests can remove ; how thrice blessed must have
been the felicity of Eve !

Apart from the spirit which the Eternal gave to lead man to
Himself, was the MIND which opened to the creatures formed in
His image the inexhaustible resources of wisdom, imagination,
knowledge— all that could create that higher kind of happiness,
which is synonymous with mental joy. Sources of what is now
termed wisdom, that of books and man, were indeed unknown
to our first parents ; nor did they need them. In the wonders
of creation, the tree, the herb, the flower, the gushing rivers,
the breezy winds ; nay, from the mighty form of the largest
beast, to the structure of the tiniest leaf; the flow of the river to
the globule of the dew, which watered the face of the whota
ear*b, there was enough to excite and satisfy their mental powers ;
enongh to excite emotions alike of wonder and adoration.
Their commune with the angelic messengers of their benevolent
Creator, their tidings of Heaven and its hosts, must have excited
the highest and purest pleasure of imagination, and so diversified
and lightened the mental exercises of wisdom, which the palpable
and visible objects of creation so continually call forth.

Nor was spiritual and mental felicity the only portion of Eve
—the affections, the impulses of the heart, fresh from the
creating Hand of Love, had full play— created, as the perfecting
finish to man's happiness, beholding him, the lord of all on which
nhe gazed — earth formed to yield him her fruits — water and air,
to unite for his refreshment — every animal obeying his authority
—instinctively feeling, too, the mighty power of his intellect.
the strength of his mind and frame, the deepest reverence must
have mingled with, and so perfected, her love. Nor would thi?
acknowledgment tend to degrade woman in the scale of

22 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

creation. Formed, like man, in the immortal likeness of the Lord
he was his equal in his responsibilities towards God and in the care
of his creatures ; endowed equally with man, but differently as
to the nature of those endowments. His mission was to protect
and guide and have dominion— hers to soothe, bless, persuade
to right, and " help" in all things " meet" for immortal beings.

The existence of Eve, then, in her innocence, was, in a word,
an existence of love — love towards God and nature and man,
which none of the infirmities of our present state could cloud or
interrupt. Do we err, then, in saying that, even in the brief record
of Scripture, we have sufficient authority for delineating the felicity
of our first parents in Eden ? And will it not demonstrate
appealingly to us, those pleasures which God Himself ordained,
and which, even now, might so be cultivated as to bring us
happiness, as infinitely superior to the amusements so called as
innocence is to sin ?

But beautiful as is this picture, we must turn from it to
consider feelings and events of a sadly different nature. In the
most conspicuous part of Paradise, the Eternal had called forth
two trees, differing in their magnificence, perhaps in the halo
with which they may have been encircled, as peculiar witnesses
of their Creator, from every other in the garden. They were
the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. Of the first so
little is known that we are justified in supposing the intention of
its existence was frustrated by the disobedience of man ; a
conjecture founded on the solemn fact, that as the Lord created
not one thing in vain, that tree must also have had its use and
.ntention, and from the words which follow at a later period,
" Lest man put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life,
and eat and live for ever," we are quite authorized to suppose it
possessed some qualities yet mightier than the Tree of Knowledge,
with which its taste would have gifted man, had he not by
rebellion frustrated the beneficent design of his Creator, and
forfeited the privileges which might have been his own.

Of the Tree of Knowledge, its intention and its uses, we have
sufficient information. The Eternal knew the nature of the
creatures He had formed ; that it was but an easy and slender
trial of obedience and of love, if they had no temptation to rebel
or disobey. Though subject to His sway, though deriving
existence from His hand, and enjoying life and all its varied
sources of felicity from the same infinite love, yet the Eternal, in

PERIOD I. — EVE. 25?

His wisdom and His justice, had endowed them with the power
of free-will ; of listening to and following, or struggling with and
conquering, the seeds of corruption, which from their earthly
shell were inherent, though as yet kept so completely under
subjection from the divine and purifying nature of the soul, that,
until he was tried, man himself was scarcely sensible of their
existence. To have guarded him jealously from every temptation
— to have surrounded him with naught but sources of pleasure
and enjoyment, and so called forth only the grateful and adoring
faculties of the spirit, was not according to that divine and
perfect economy of love and justice which characterized the
dealings of the Creator with his creatures. It was deeper,
dearer love, to permit man to win his immortality, his eternal
innocence, than to bestow them upon him unsought, and therefore
little valued. They could be guilty of no crime in the world's
parlance, so termed. They were the sole possessors of the newly
created earth : in daily commune with their creator, and therefore
in neither idolatry, blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking, dishonoring of
parents, murder, adultery, theft, false-witness, or covetousness,
could they sin. God knew that all the crimes which might
devastate the earth would spring from one alone, DISOBEDIENCE ;
and therefore was it that His infinite wisdom ordained that the
trial of man's love, and faith, and virtue, should simply be,
obedience to His will.

" And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every
tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat ; but of the tree of
the knowledge of the good and evil thou shalt not eat ; for in
the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die."
Whether this threatened chastisement was robed in mystery, or
that Adam had beheld death in the inferior animals (for Holy
Writ gives us no authority for believing that even they knew
not death till after the fall), and so could have some idea of
what he would become, even as a clod of the earth if he dis
obeyed, we may not here determine ; suffice it, that the Eternal
was too merciful, too just, to threaten His creature with a chas
tisement for disobedience which he could not comprehend.

Beautiful to look upon, and exquisite in its fragrance, we may
imagine the Tree of Knowledge extending its rich foliage and
tempting fruit in the most conspicuous part of the garden, no
doubt frequently attracting the admiration of Adam and Eve,
perhaps exciting wishes, which the spirit within them had as

24 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

yet power to effectually banish, or entirely subdue. Alone, un
protected by the sterner, firmer qualities of her husband, Eve
had walked forth, secure in her own innocence, in the conscious
ness of love lingering within, and all around her ; — the young
animals gambolling about her, calling forth her caresses and her
smile — the little birds springing from tree to tree in joyous
greeting, or nestling in her bosom without one touch of fear —
the gorgeous flowers, in all their glowing robes and exquisite
fragrance, clustering richly around her — the very buds seeming
to look up into her sweet loving face, to reflect increase of
beauty from the gaze, so may our fancy picture her, as she
neared that tree under whose fair branches so much of misery
lurked. Coiled at its root, or twisted in rainbow-colored folds
arc und its trunk, lay the serpent, " who was more subtle than
any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." And
he said unto the woman, " Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not
eat of every tree in the garden ? And the woman said, We
may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit
of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,
Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die,
for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your
eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good
and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be de
sired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat ;n
and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

Such are the brief, yet emphatic words in which the inspired
prophet of the Lord detailed those incidents on which the whole
after-history of the world is founded — the mournful detail of
that first sin, from which every other sprang, DISOBEDIENCE.
Of the various speculations and opinions concerning the instru
mentality of the serpent we shall take no heed, save the humble
endeavor to reconcile the ways of the Lord. He permitted the
trial, but He commanded not the evil interposition of the subtlest
of His creatures, the serpent, any more than He commanded
the subtlety of Jacob in obtaining his father's blessing. Both
events were permitted to take place ; but the evil means of
iheir accomplishment were NOT of the LORD, and consequently
their agents were both subject to His displeasure, and con.
iemned U> punishment and wrath.

PERIOD!. EVE. 25

In one brief hour, the whole nature of Eve was changed —
the seeds of frailty, of whose very existence she had been
scarcely conscious before, sprang up into influencing poison.
Curiosity, presumption, the overweening trust in her own
strength, the desire to act alone, independent of all control — to
become greater, wiser, higher than the scale of being, than the
station in which God's love had placed her — discontent — scorn
of the blessings which a moment before had seemed so precious,
simply because imagination portrayed others more alluring —
attracted by novelty, beauty, those idol shrines at which woman
BO often sacrifices her better, her immortal self — such (and
are they not the characteristics of woman, even as she is now ?)
— such were the emotions excited by the wily tempter, through
whose baneful influence she fell. Where, at that moment, was
the voice of the spirit, warning her of the God she disobeyed ?
Where the whisper of the mind, telling her that the sources of
wisdom, of knowledge, already open, were the purest and the
best ? Where the fond tones of the heart, urging her to seek
the protection, the counsel, the support, of her earthly lord ?
Hushed, drowned, in the wild tumult of new and terrible ex
citement of feelings, whose very novelty fascinated and held her
chained. The voice of the tempter was in her ear. Sight and
smell were filled with the exquisite branch, the delicious fra
grance ; and if such were revealed, what must be its taste and
touch, when to pluck and eat would make her as gods, knowing
good and evil ? Weak, frail, unguarded, for the still small voice
of the soul was lost in that hour's tempest, was it marvel that
she fell ? Could she have done otherwise ? The bulwark of
FAITH was shivered, her heart was open and defenceless — she
was alone, alone, for even the guardian within, if not fled, was
silent. The God of infinite love and compassion beheld, but
approached not ; and wherefore ? If He permitted, ordained, why
did He punish ? Oh, had the voice of his creature called on
Him in that terrible hour ; had but the faintest cry ascended for
help, for strength, for mercy ; had but the struggling murmur
arisen, "Father, thy words are truth, let me but believe?
strength, help, faith, would have poured their reviving rays into
her sinking soul, and she had been saved — saved for immor
tality, saved to glorify her God 1 It was not that she had not
the power so to pray. Free-will was her own — to obey, or disobey
•—to adhere, or to rebel. Of herself, indeed, she could not have

26 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

resisted ; but she had equal power to call upon the Lord, as cc
listen to the tempter. According to the path she chose, would
have been the issue. Infinite, measureless, as is the love of the
Eternal, yet how dare we believe He will grant us help and
strength, unless they are implored? How dare we believe He
will come forward to our aid, if we stand forth in our own
strength, as if we needed naught; nay, through presumption,
arrogance, self-righteousness, rebel against, and defy Him ? Hfc
had said, " Eat not of the tree of knowledge, for on the day thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." He had not commanded
only, though that should have been sufficient from a loving
Father to his children ; but the command was enforced with a
warning, that love should be strengthened by reverential fear.
He had given the power to resist temptation, by CALLING UPON
HIM : but if that power were trampled upon and utterly disre
garded ; and the creature of His hand, whose whole existence,
felicity, strength, wisdom, had their being but in Him, so de
pended upon herself, as to be satisfied with her own strength,
believing it was in her power to become as a god, and so defy
ing Him, is it contradiction to assert, that the All-wise, All-
merciful, All- JUST, permitted, and yet punished ? Surely, surely,
there is not one portion of this mournful history, which, on
mature consideration, will be found irreconcilable with the
attributes of the Eternal, or with His dealings with His creatures.
* She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat" For a brief inter
val, we may suppose, the tumult within, the struggle between
virtue and vice, innocence and guilt, was stilled in a strange,
fearf il intoxication of sinful joy. She had broken through the
barrier which, at the words of the serpent, seemed suddenly of
iron, it so degraded her by its harshness and injustice. She was
INDEPENDENT, had acted by herself, had shaken off all control ;
and the full tide of guilty pleasure so swept over her soul as to
permit for the moment no thought but of herself. But this
lasted not long : the reaction came with the one thought — her
husband. Terror of his anger was, in all probability, the first
emotion — how might she evade it ? Fear, notwithstanding her
independence, deadened, banished, frustrated every feeling cf
remorse; repentance, sorrow — all would avail her nothing now;
there was but one way to avert her husband's wrath — to make
him disobedient as herself. The crime would appear less could
another share it. She recollected the influence she possessed ;

PERIOD I. EVE. 27

nay, tiiat she had been created to be his help, 1x3 soften hig
sterner and less yielding nature, and would it fail her now 1
There was no pause, there could be none ; guilt ever hurries on
its victims. On her arguments, her persuasions, holy writ is
silent. It was enough — " she gave also unto her husband with
her, and he did eat."

The crime was consummated. Love itself, the purest, noblest,
most influencing of those spiritual blessings vouchsafed to man
by his Creator — love, deeper for the creature than the Creator,
deeming the gift more precious than the Giver — love it was
which to Adam was the tempter, and so converted the richest
blessing to the direst curse. The specious offers, the dazzling
allurements of the serpent had, perhaps, to his stronger, more
steadfast nature, been of no avail. He had no need of ambition,
for he was lord over the whole created world. A glance from
his eye, a stern rebuke from his lips, had awed even the subtlest
of the beasts into silence, and banished him for ever ; but
strength and firmness fled before the endearing influence of the
being, whom, created to perfect his happiness, he loved better than
himself. Excuse for his weakness, indeed, there is none ; but if
such may be the extent of woman's influence (and it is as power
ful even now), how fearful is her responsibility, and how deep
should be her humility, how fervent her petitions for graos to
guide aright !

Not long might the triumph of guilt last. Day declined —
the lour of evening came which they were wont so joyfully to
welcome, for it brought with it the voice of God. Remorse
had come with all its horrors, and now for the first time tho
extent of their sin stood before them. Terror banished all of
love, as all of joy ; and when the first sound of the Eternal's
voice reached them, they fled in anguish to hide themselves
amid the trees of the garden. Vain hope ! but proving how all
of spirit and of mind was crushed and buried in this first and
awful sway of guilt. " And the Lord God called unto Adam, and
said unto him, Where art thou ? And he said, I heard thy voice
in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked ; and I hid
myself. And the Lord God said, Who told thee that thou wast
naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded
thee that thou shouldst not eat ? And the man said, Tho
woman thou gavest to be with me gave me of the fruit,
and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman.
2

28 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

What is this thou hast done ? And the woman taid, Tlw
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."

Though to Him all was known, yet would not the beneficent,
,he ever-loving, aye, even at that moment still loving God
condemn without question, judge without permitting defence.
And how upbraiding, how loving the appeal, " What is this
that thou hast done ?" breathing a Father's sorrowing mercy in
the very midst of justly deserved punishment. There was no
consuming wrath, no terrifying anger, naught to betray that
mighty and awful Being at whose first word might be annihila
tion.

The Eternal pronounced not sentence without requiring and
waiting for reply : but what was that reply ? Accusation
of another, not self-abhorrence and lowly repentance. How
fearfui "**s the change wrought in the heart, as well as in the
spirit 6\ man, by his sin ! Where now was his deep love for
Eve, that he could say, vainly hoping to exculpate himself,
" The woman thou didst give me, she gave me of the fruit, and
I did eat?" She had led him by the power of his love into sin ;
but from that moment her power was at an end, and he cared
not to give her up to justice, so he excused himself. How
terrible a commencement of her punishment must have been
her husband's words to the still loving heart of Eve ! It was
true she had done as he had said ; but was he to be her accuser ?
And to her were those words of sorrowing compassion said,
u What is this that thou hast done ?" Hast thou indeed so used
the power, the beauty, the influence with which I endowed thee
for so different a purpose ? She denied it not : she said not one
word to justify her sin towards her husband; his words had
entered her heart with the first sharp pang which human affec
tion knew, and there was no attempt at defence or evasion ; —
''The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat." If Adam had
stooped to lay the blarne of his own weakness upon one whom
he had loved, instead of bewailing his own sin, it was no wonder
Eve, not yet awakened to what she should have done to avert
the temptation, conscious but of increasing misery, thought only
of what might seem excuse, " The serpent beguiled me." Tho
Eternal knew she had spoken truth ; and, still guided by that
mercy and justice which in God alone are so perfectly united,
there is no need of " man's ways " to reconcile them, proceeded
to pronounce sentence according to the degrees of guilt.

? E II I O D I . EVE. 29

This is not the place to enter into a dissertation on the
Dunishment awarded to the serpent; suffice it that there seems
no hidden or allegorical meaning in the inspired historian's simp o
words. The serpent, as a beast of the field, beguiled, and as a
oeast of the field was punished. Nor can an Israelite acknow
ledge any allusion to, or any necessity for, a crucified and atoning
Saviour, in the very simple words, "I will put enmity between
thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed ; it shaL1
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." For a Hebrew,
the words can only be taken in their purely literal sense. We
are particular on this point; because thus early, in the perusal
of the sacred Scriptures, the Jewish and Gentile readings differ ;
and from childish readings of Bible histories by Gentile writers,
we may find ourselves giving credence to an assertion for which
we have no Mosaic authority, and which, in after years, we would
gladly root out from the mystical and contradictory opinions
with which it confuses our ideas.

Eve's chastisement was severer than her husband's, and it was
just that so it was, for she was the first transgressor. Death,
indeed, — that the dust of which the frame was composed should
return to dust, — was the awful sentence pronounced on both ;
for such had been threatened from the first if they disobeyed :
but during their sojourn upon earth, the sharper and severer
trial of pain, of multiplied sorrows, of sinking comparatively in
the scale of strength and intellect, of becoming subject to her
husband, not, as before, from the sweet obedience of love, but
from the sterner mandate of duty ; of being exposed, as a mother,
to a hundred sources of anguish of which man knows nothing ;
for his deepest, dearest love for his offspring is not like a mother's,
subject to the thousand petty anxieties and cares which, indepen
dent of severer maternal trials, till her heart from the moment
she hears the first faint cry of the new-born until death. And
these trials were Eve's, and they are woman's. Man had, indeed,
his work ; the earth was cursed through his sin, and forbidden,
to yield her fruit without the severest labor ; he was to go
forth from the Paradise of innocence and love to till the ground
v* hence he was taken — banished, and for ever.

The voice of their God, for the first time heard in reproachful
though still forbearing inquiry, and then in fearful condemnation,
removed the blackening Toil of sin. The spirit burst from the
chains of guilt and sin, and while it bowed in agony and »•< morsft

SO THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

before the Father and the Judge, and acknowledged this awful
sentence just, drew them once more to each other. Love was
not given only for the happy : to the sorrowing, the repentant,
it comes soothing while it softens, seeming, even while it deepens
the heavy floods of grief, to banish all of hardness, of selfishness,
and of despair. The justice of the Eternal marked the woman
as the greater sinner — Adam's further wrath was needless;
remorse too told him that, as the stronger, the tinner, he should
have resisted her persuasions, that his disobedience was his own
sin, not her's ; and we may believe that, as weak, trembling,
bowed to the very dust, not from the thoughts of her own chas
tisement so much as from the reflection of what she had hurled
upon her husband, fur such still is woman, Adam once more
received her to his heart, the sharer of his future toils, the soother
of his threatened cares, even as she had before been the help
meet of his joy.

And already Eve needed all of strength and comfort her earthly
lord might give. Still remembering mercy, the Eternal clothed
them for their departure, endowing them with those faculties of
invention, alike tor their personal comfort as for the tillage of
the ground, for which they had no need in Eden ; but the very
gift betrayed the bleak and desert world they were about to seek.
Uould they but remain iu the home of their past innocence and
joy, the anguish of the present might be sooner healed. Who
that thinks a moment of what we now feel in turning from a
beloved home, the scene of all our early hopes and joys and love,
adorned with all of nature and of ait. to seek another, im
poverished, and fraught with toil and danger, apart from every
object, animate or inanimate, which has twined round our hearts
and bound us there, — who, that pictures scenes like these, will
refuse our general mother the need of sympathy as she turned
from Eden. A change perhaps her sin had wrought even there.
The birds flew aloft, trembling to approach that gentle bosom
which had before been their resting-place ; the young animals
fled in terror from her step ; and there was that in the changed
fierce aspects of the beasts of the tield, which caused her heart to
fckken with deadly fear. The very flowers hung their heads and
drooped when gathered ; they could not bear the touch of sin.
Yet to that woman's heart Eden was Eden still — her ho?ne, the
receiver of all those varied channels of love which could be spared
from her husband ; and to turn from it, never to approach it more,

PERIOD I. EVE. 31

and from the consequences of her own act, how deep must have
oeen her agony, how touching its remorse, and how necessary
the support of love !

Though Moses, in his brief detail of past events, simply follows
the expulsion from Eden by the birth of Cain, we have sufficient
authority from the unchangeable attributes of the Eternal, to
believe, that the same love which provided Adam and Eve with
clothing, directed and blessed their wanderings ; and though no
longer revealing Uis gracious presence, as in Eden, yet still
inspiring the power of prayer and belief in His constant omni
presence and protection. Their sin had indeed changed their
earthly nature, — the good had been conquered by the evil. It
was henceforth a difficult and weary task to subdue the evil
inclinations, theproneness to disobedience and self-righteousness.
It was a labor of toil and tears to bring the heavenly essence
once more even to a faint and disfigured likeness of its God ; the
voice of the soul, once silenced as it had been, could only be
heard after years of watching and prayer. The Eternal, in His
prescience, knew this would be, not so much in Adam himself
(tor repentance and sorrow brought him back through his
punishment to holiness and constant commune with his God), but
in his offspring. Further and further, as the children of men
advanced from their first father — as the tale of creation, of the
Eternal's visible presence in Paradise, of all which llis love had
formed for His favored creature, man, became fainter and fainter
in the distance of the past, — so would the likeness of the Lord
in which man was made, become more and more effaced, and
siu become more and more ascendant. For this reason then it
was, that the Eternal, alike in His wisdom and justice and MERCY,
ordained death as the end of all, the righteous and the wicked ;
for Solomon himself telleth us " there is no man that sinneth
not :" and we read in the narrative of Moses himself (Gen. vi. 6)
that every imagination of man's heart was only evil continually,
and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth,
and it grieved him at his heart; and again (Gen. viii.), "I will
not curse the ground any more for man's sake ; for the imagina
tion of man's heart is evil from his youth."

l>ut the Mosaic creed of love and perfect justice goes ED
further. We utterly repudiate, deny, and hold in abhorrence,
the awful creed which condemns every man's soul for the sin of
Adam. To use the language of our own venerable sages : —

82 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

"Although the descendants of Adam inherited the body from
him, and with it -the maledictions attached thereto, it is not
because they received corporeal existence from him that the
souls of all mankind are condemned, for they had not existence
from Adam, but are a direct emanation from God. Therefore
Noah, Shem, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the other just,
did not pay the sin of Adam, nor were their souls condemned." *
And still more convincing proof fyom the Word of God ; Pen
tateuch, History, Psalms, Proverbs, and Prophets, almost every
page bears witness that each man is responsible for his own
individual acts. — " See, I have set before you this day LIFE and
GOOD, DEATH and EVIL ; therefore choose life, that thou and
thy seed may LIVE" (Deut. xxx. 15 and 19). " Then they that
feared the Lord spake often one to another ; and the Lord
hearkened, and heard it: and a book of remembrance was
written before Him for them that feared the Lord and thought
upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of
hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels ; and I will spare
them, as a mac spareth his own son that servetb him. Then
shall ye return, and discern between the RIGHTEOUS and the
WICKED ; between him that serveth God, and htm that serveth
him not" (Mai. iii. 16, 17, 18). " Repent, and turn yourselves
from all your transgressions ; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have
transgressed ; and make you a new heart and a new spirit : for
why wit ye die, 0 house of Israel ? For I have no pleasure in
the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God : therefore turn
yourselves, and live ye" (Eze. xviii. 30,31,32). "Turn ye
unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you"
(Zach. i. 3).

It wo lid be useless transcribing all the passages in the Bible
similar to the above — and teeming with the doctrine of indivi
dual responsibility, and individual power to regain the favor of
the Eternal — which is completely opposed to the Gentile creed.
But while we reject, wholly and utterly, all belief in the Naza-
rene doctrine, that we are each and all, even the new-born babe,
condemned to everlasting misery unless we acknowledge Jesua
• — reject it, because it is contrary to the doctrines of Moses ;

» The Conciliator, vol. ii. page 214. Translated from the Spanish of
Manasseh Ben Israel, by E. H. Lindo, Esq.

PERIOD I. EVE. 33

to the whole spirit of the Bible ; contrary to every
attribute of a just and merciful God ; we equally reject the mis
taken and sceptical belief that the disobedience of our first
parents in no way affects us now. If its effects were only con
fined to them, where is the mercy, the justice of the Lord, in
condemning all their seed to return to the dust? Who that
looks into himself and knows the " plague of his own heart,"
the difficulty to realize spirituality and holiness — who that reads
his Bible with faith and prayer, and marks the prevalence of
evil even there, the failing's and the weaknesses of the holiest
men, even those hallowed by the appellation of the " friends of
God," will still refuse belief that the disobedience of our first
parents so far altered our nature as to give the body more pow
erful dominion than the soul ; and thus, by deadening the
spiritual influence within us, exposing us to temptation of every
kind, and consequently but too often to sin ; and rendering it a
difficult and often desponding task to give the spiritual domi
nion over the corporeal, and to devote our whole hearts — not
alone in our closets, but in the duties and occupations of the
world still to serve and love our God. What would have been
the glorious nature of Adam and Eve if they had not sinned,
we know not ; for it is a subject far too holy for speculation or
conjecture : but that their transgression produced consequences
which demanded that not only themselves but their seed should
return to dust, is a scriptural truth which no one who believes
in Moses and the Prophets can, we think, have sufficient bold
ness to deny. But the SOUL it touched not. — An emanation
from God Himself, it will return to Him, untouched by any sin
but those of the body in whom it was breathed ; and there, at
the bar of God, our own acts, purified by mercy, judged by the
ways and thoughts of the Lord — which are not the ways and
thoughts of man — guided by the law his mercy gave, hallowed
by faith and justified by love — our own acts must be our wit
ness or our condemnation. Nor is this an individual doctrine
lightly and carelessly entered upon or produced from one par
ticular class of reading. It has been the thought and study of
'.oug years, based on an earnest and prayerful study of the Holy
Scriptures, and on the spirit pervading the writings of every
Hebrew sage which are accessible to woman. We have brought
it strongly forward ; because, unless we know exactly what wo
Jo believe and what we do not believe from the verv beginning

34 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

of the Holy Scriptures, our readings must always be attended
with obscurity and pain, and the very attributes of the Eternal
difficult to be realized amid the awful scenes of wickedness
which the historical books present. We will now proceed with
the more private history of Eve.

Years must have rolled over the heads of our first parents
since their expulsion, ere the fearful event took place, which,
although it mentions not their names, must recall our attention
to them. Although, in comparison, they had become degraded,
and the recollection of their sin must ever have remained with
its stinging remorse, — still, repentance and real sorrow, meek
submission to their chastisement and acknowledgment of its
justice, raised them from their first abject misery, and permitted
them once more, through prayer and thanksgiving and sacrifice,
to commune with the Lord. Eve's exclamation on the birth of
Cain — " I have gotten a man from the Lord," proves how closely
and devoutly she still traced all blessings from His gracious
hand : — hallowing her maternal joy by gratitude to Him. His
love had bestowed on her a blessing unknown even in Eden — a
child — a possession peculiarly her own and her husband's; and
in the exultation of her grateful joy she calls his name y^p Cain,
from nij^ to possess or to acquire. In his early infancy, ere he
became awake to right and wrong, his parents could but feel
enjoyment to train him up so as to know no sin, to love and
serve the Lord, and to give them love and reverence in return
for the deep, endless fondness they lavished upon him. But by
the name bestowed upon their second son, Abel, we may almost
suppose that they had already felt the vanity of these hopes and
wishes ; that even in his boyhood Cain manifested those evil
passions and that headstrong will, which led in after years to
such fearful consequences.

The effects of Eve's disobedience were now to ^>e displayed in
her own offspring — the child of exultation and joy — whom
she had welcomed with such delight, that she almost felt as if
no sorrow or suffering could assail her more, was the instrument
in the Eternal hand to bring her back meekly and submissively
to Him, in prayer for that beloved one, in recognition that
her sin was working- still. The passions and rebellion of
her first-born brought all the agony of remorse fresh upon
her heart ; and deep as was the :oy with which she had hailed

PERIOD I. EVE. 35

bis birth, Mas the anxiety, the suffering, his dawning cha
racter called forth.

Actuated by such emotions, it was with sorrow, then, more
than joy, that the birth of her second boy was hailed. She
had already felt the vanity, the transientness of her hopes ; and
mournfully she called his name b^n Hebel — transientness 01
vanity, from i3fif which signifies to follow a vain thing, to
cherish vain thoughts. But as « the case (how often even
now !) the child of tears and anticipated sorrow, proved as dear
and precious a blessing as the son of exultation was of
grief. She saw in him the ascendency of the spiritual, the
deathless part of their mingled nature, that evil could still
be subdued, arid man be still acceptable and worthy in
the sight of his Creator. The compassionate love of the Eter
nal, while lie chastised through Cain, gave hope and trust and
comfort through Abel. He showed through these varying
natures, that free will to choose the good and eschew the
evil was still given ; and that though the latter to the eyes
of the world might seem, nay was, the ascendant, He would
yet preserve his witnesses among mankind, to keep alive the
knowledge of the Lord, and prove the pre-eminence, the beauty,
the glory, and the consolation of piety and virtue.

So years rolled on : the boys grew up to manhood. And
though it is not specifically mentioned, it is evident that
Eve must also have borne a daughter, who, as was abso
lutely necessary in the early stages of the world, became
the wife of Cain. Some writers believe that Cain and Abel
were both born with twin sisters. It may or may not be,
as it must be only conjecture — though Cain's wife only is men
tioned.

The words of scripture " and he (Adam) begat sons and
daughters," are sufficient for our information. In all probability
his family was a large one, — that his seed might fulfil the
intention of the Eternal in peopling the world ; but how many
daughters he had before the death of Abel does not appear, and
is of little consequence.

During the growth of their elder children, the lives of
our first parents differ little in feeling from those of the present
day. Their employments, indeed, were as unlike as patriarchal
liinplicity is from worldly interest and luxury — the pe^^e of

30 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

nature from the contention of the world. In reading the naria*
tives of the Bible, we often blend situation with feeling, and
believe that as the one is too antiquated for interest and exam
ple, so is the other for sympathy and love. But the Bible tells
of no character above human nature ; and why not then, in
perusing the circumstances of their simple lives, try their feeling!
by the standard of our own ? Who that is a mother, does not
feel anxiety, pleasure, grief, joy, despondency, and hope, almost
all at the same time, according to the differing dispositions of her
children ? Who that is a parent does not acknowledge that
maternal love may combine the intensest joy with the intensest
grief? And will they not then sympathize in the feelings
of Eve? — at one time bowed to the very dust in the angaish
occasioned by the sinful inclinations and rude temper of her first
born, in self-accusation that she, perhaps, was the original cause,
even as an affectionate mother very often accuses herself for the
faults of her offspring — at another, weeping tears of sweet joy,
and love, and consolation, on the gentle bosom of her Abel,
whose whole life and thoughts were directed to piety and virtue
to God and to his parents — whose very existence, as her
own had been in Paradise, seemed bright with reverence
and love ?

But even this life of mingled grief and comfort might not
last. Not yet had Eve sufficiently atoned for her disobedience,
and proved her love and faith, to pass through the awful portals
of death to the home prepared for her in heaven. Death,
as concerned herself, her husband, her children, was still
the dark shadow through which as yet no certain light had
beamed. The Eternal, in His mercy, had prepared to reveal it,
but through clouds of denser, more appalling blackness than had
yet gathered round His creatures.

Wrought up to phrensy by the preference manifested towards
the pious offering of his younger brother — refusing to acknow
ledge that it was the temper of his own mind at fault, and that
he had himself trampled on, and defied the favor he yet
coveted, when shown to another — still sullenly and obstinately
encouraging the evil, even when the Lord, in infinite mercy,
condescended Himself to speak with his rebellious servant,
J»nd asking why he was wroth, informed him that though
lin was ever crouching beside him, he (Cain) had the power
to rule over and subdue it, still disregarding even this, listening

PERIODI. EVE. 31

but to the fearful instigations of his own heart, — * it came
to pass, when they were in the field together, that Cain rose up
against his brother Abel, and slew him."

The dark terror of death was mysterious no longer. In
its most fearful, most appalling shape, it had descended upon
earth — the bright, the beautiful, the loving, and the holy, there
he lay before the eyes of his agonized parents, his life-blood
iyeing the green-sward — that face so fair, so sweet an index
of the pure glorious soul — those limbs, so soft and round
and graceful, whose every movement had brought joj to
his mother's heart — they gazed upon them still, beautiful as
if he slept, save that there was a stillness and a coldness as the
earth on which he lay. This, then, was death, and it had been
dealt by a brother's hand. Can any woman, much less a
mother, reflect on Eve's immeasurable agony, and yet pass
lightly and heedlessly over this first narration of Holy Writ,
refusing sympathy, even interest, in the deep dark floods
of misery, with which, though her name is not mentioned,
those few words of a brother's hate and wrath and murder
teem ? Not alone a mother's anguish, deprived of both her
children in one fearful day — not, not alone the wild yearn
ings of affection towards the guilty and the exile, strug
gling with the passionate misery for her own bereavement, but
more crushing, more agonizing still — it was her work — she had
disobeyed to obtain the knowledge of good and evil. — and how
appallingly had that forbidden knowledge poured back its
stinging poison into her own heart ! Her beautiful had fallen
— she might never, never gaze upon him, list his sweet
voice more — the dust ha<^ gone to its dust — sent to iiis grave in
his youth, his sinlessness — the helpless and the innocent crushed
by the s*rong hand of the guilty — and the Eternal had looked
down from his awful thronj and interfered not. VV7hy had the
only innocent, the only righteous, being the first to pay the
penalty of death, when his guilty parents and yet more guilty
brother were permitted still to live? Nay, the doom of Cain,
which the hardened one himself declared " was greater than he
could bear," was not to die, but live as a wanderer whom none
might slay. Why might such things be ? Were tiiey recon
cilable with those attributes of justice and of love and long
ftuft'ering, which the Eternal had already proclaimed, through

38 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL, -

His conduct, to his creatures ? They were : for in the death of
the innocent, IMMORTALITY was proclaimed !

The disobedient looked on the death their sin had brought — >
they felt, in their own bosoms, the deepest agony of bereave
ment — they saw not the terror, only as the end of existence •
but by the scythe cutting down the young in his first beautiful
spring, and in the full prime of holiness and good, they learned
what their own death, at the moment of disobedience, could not
have taught — that the righteous must also be cut off, as well as
the guilty — that death was not only chastisement for itself
alone, but in the deep agony it inflicted upon the living, in the
awful trial of separation and bereavement, and the utter loneli
ness of heart when a beloved one goes ; and, this learned, the
world beyond death, the dwelling of the righteous, the reunion
of the divine essence with its parent Fount — immortality — was
revealed !

That the caviller, the sceptic, the thoughtless will deny this,
because we can bring forward no written proof of its truth, we
are perfectly aware : but we write for the believer, for the Israel
ite, who not only reads the words of his Bible, but explains
them by one only unerring test, the ATTRIBUTES of God. The
question is simply this — Do we believe in a God ? That He is,
as He proclaimed Himself, " merciful and gracious, long-suffer
ing, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for
thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin, yet clearing not the guilty,"
without repentance and amendment? Do we believe in Him,
as in every page of His Holy Word lie is revealed, or do we
not ? If we do not — if we deny the existence of a just and
merciful, though in many instances inscrutable, Gxl, then
indeed we may deny our immortality ; but if we acknowledge
there is a God, aye, and one whose justice and whose love are
infinite and perfect as Himself, we must not only believe in our
own immortality, but trace its doctrine running through the Holy
Scriptures, alike from the death of Abel to the last verses of
M;ilachi, pervading, vivifying, spiritualizing its every portion,
even as our mortal frame is pervaded, vivified, and spiritualized,
by the invisible, yet ever breathing SOUL. We do not doubt
and question that we have a soul, because we have nothing pal
pable and evident by which to prove it ; and even as the soul
is the essence, the spirit of our being, so is immortality th*
nosence and the spirit of the Bible.

PERIODI. EVE. 38

Where was the mercy, nay, the justice of the Eternal, had he
Dunished with eternal death the only righteous of His creatures ?
We can scarcely even dwell upon the idea for a moment with
out impiety. Abel was taken, that while death in his most
fearful form was revealed to manifest all the terrible evil and
anguish Eve's sin had brought, the hope and promise of
immortality might be given, and the agonized parents comforted.
He was removed " from the evil to come," to that world, where
" light had been sown for the righteous" from the beginning,
and would be for ever.

But though this revelation must have brought with it com
fort unspeakable, yet the heavy trial of Eve might not even,
through this beneficent assurance, be entirely assuaged. She
could not now, as she had done in Eden, realize so blessedly the
pre-eminence of the spirit over the feelings of the clay. Though
comforted, the weakness of humanity must still have been too
often in the ascendant, and taught her all the bitterness of grief.
Even though the thought of Abel might, through the unselfish
ness of woman's love, be tranquillized by the idea, that however
she might suffer, he was happy, as she had been in Eden, no
such comfort could attend the thought of Cain. It was vain to
measure maternal love by the worth or unworthiness of its
objects. It was not only that he was exiled for ever from her
sight, that her yearning heart might never seek to soothe him
more ; but she knew that he was, he must be a wretched wanderer,
and the mother felt his wretchedness, though, she saw it not, in
addition to her own. Mercy, indeed, had tempered his chastise
ment, for he had not been cut off in his sin — he had been
doomed to length of days on earth, that he might repent and
atone ; but this, to a weak and suffering parent, though she
might struggle to lift *ip her heart in gratitude, could Hot afford
consolation.

There is little more to narrate in the life of Eve ; but that
little, as every other incident in her life, proves forcibly the
Eternal's still compassionating love. To remove all of utter
bereavement from His first created, first beloved, when the first
agony of Eve's heavy trial was over, God gave her another
son. And she called" his name no Seth, because she said, God
has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain
slew." And as from Seth descended a line of venerable patri
archs, one of whom was taken UD to heaven, without dying, for

iO THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

his righteousness ; and from them came Noah, who alone wai
saved from universal destruction ; then through him Abraham,
the favored servant and friend of the Eternal — Abraham, for
whose sake Israel was the chosen, and is still the beloved of
the Lord, we may quite believe that Eve was not only com
forted by the gift of a son, but that even as Abel he was
righteous, and that he was the comforter of his parents — that
in beholding his opening manhood, the dawning virtue and
graces of his spirit, the fiery trial of their early life was soothed,
and they could trace the hand of the Lord bringing forth good
out of the very midst of evil, and rest satisfied, that however
the strong and the guilty might seem to prosper, lie would
never leave Himself without witnesses upon earth.

Although there is no mention of the death of Eve, the words
of Holy Writ, informing us that " Adam lived eight hun
dred years after he had begotten Seth, and had sons and
daughters," would prove that she, too, lived that period, there
being no mention whatever, as is often the case with the other
patriarchs, of Adam taking another wife. The former tempta
tions, trials, and sorrows of our first parents, must have then
been looked back upon by them in their old age, as we should
look on the events which may have befallen us before the age
of twenty, when we have reached the venerable years of four
score. That long life was evidently granted in mercy. Had
they been cut off on the instant of their transgression, it must
ha\re been for eternity, or death would have been no punish
ment. Had they ooen taken sooner, we will suppose before the
death of Abel, though they might have been spared that bitter
sorrow, still darkness, and fear for themselves, and doubt as to
the ways and attributes of the Eternal, must have crowded
round them, and filled them with despair as to the probable
ettects of their sin on their offspring, and their offspring's seed.
Long life, through the infinite mercy of the Eternal, removed
these evils. While they felt, in all the bitterness of remorse,
all the evil they had wrought, they were yet comforted by the
revelation of immortality, and the consequent incentive for tho
struggling after righteousness, which, without such blessed incen
tive, man could never have achieved. They beheld, that
though the likeness of God within them had been dulled in all,
and in some would be almost entirely effaced, it might in
heaven be regained, if while on earth it was sought with fuitb

PERIOD I. EVE 41

Mid works. They learned, that though discord, strife, and
oppression, and labor, and care, would reign tumultuously on
earth, to the extinction, in appearance, of all that was spiritual
and good, there was yet in heaven an omnipresent and ever-
HCtirig love, which would so over-rule the world, that even
from3" transitory evil" would spring forth " universal good,"
and every seemingly dark and contradictory event below, tend
to the glory, the extension, and the perfection of the divino
economy above.

To obtain this knowledge our first parents were spared, and
not cut off in their sin ; and can we, their offspring, even at this
length of time, peruse their eventful history, without feeling our
hearts glow with grateful adoration of the love which guided
and haTlowed them throughout ? The stream of time which
divides us is indeed so wide, that we are apt to feel that events
so far distant can concern us little. Yet while we trace in our
mortal frame, and painful infirmities, the effects of their disobedi
ence, shall we not acknowledge, with grateful and adoring faith,
that the same love which guided, blessed, and pardoned them,
is still extended unto us ?

To dwell in paradise, to be blessed with direct commuriings
with the Eternal and His heavenly messengers, are indeed not
ours ; but many a home — aye, many a lot is a sinless paradise
to a young and gentle girl ; and loving parents will so throng
her path with care and blessings, that of evil she knows little,
and temptation is afar off. And often, too often, like Eve,
these blessings are undervalued and sacrificed, not through her
sii and disobedience, but from woman's unfortunate desire to
graso something more than is her allotted portion ; — her discon
tent with the lowliei station which her weaker frame and less
powerful mind mark imperatively as her own — her mistaken
notion, that humility is degradation ; and unless she compels
man to accede to her her rights, they will be trampled on, and
never acknowledged — her curiosity leading her too often to
covet knowledge which she needs not for the continuance
of her happiness. Oh ! let not woman deny that such too often
are her characteristics, and exclaim with scorn of Eve's weakness,
that bad she been in Eve's place, surrounded with felicity as she
wa^ the forbidden tree might have remained for ever ere she
would have touched it. She who thus thinks, commits uncon
sciously Eve's first sin, trusting too much in her own strength ;

42 THE WOMB if OF ISRAEL.

and, in consequence, is just as likely to fall beneath the very first
temptation which assails her.

Let her not quiet such fears by the thought that Eve's par
ticular temptation cannot be hers. No ; but snares innume
rable, and equally fearful, surround us. Each day brings its
own temptations, each day calls upon us to pray against them ;
for we know not how or in what shape they may arise, and ho\T
soon, if we trust in our own strength, they may triumph and
lead us to perdition. Had Eve been truly humble she had not
sinned. And if in Eden HUMILITY was needed, if even there,
without such panoply of proof, woman fell, how much more
should we encourage it now ! Humility is to woman her truest
safeguard, her loveliest ornament, her noblest influence, her
greatest strength. Teaching her her true station in regard to
man, it leads her ever to the footstool of her God, thence to
derive firmness, devotedriess, fortitude, consolation, hope, all that
she needs. While such privilege is hers, let her not repine
that God lowered Eve and made her less than man ; let her not
look back with anger that the sin of one woman should thus
punish her descendants. From the very first she was endowed
differently to man ; had she not been the weaker, the serpent
had not marked her as his easier prey. And, as our own
nature is even now as Eve's, let us rather thank God that his
love has granted us that lowly station where our natural quali
ties may best be proved, and our weaknesses and failings have
less power to work us harm. Let us cultivate, with all our
heart and soul and might, the lovely flower of humility, which,
by teaching us to think lowlily of ourselves, will render us con
tented and thankful for the blessings around us, the gifts
bestowed on us, instead of urging us to covet more ; — the
sweet flower on whose breath our souls are enabled more con
tinually to ascend to God, and whose petals, seemingly so frail
and tender, have yet more power to guard us from temptation
and presumption than an unsheathed sword. Let us not pause
till it is found and worn ; and if it make us invisible as itself,
save to those who seek and value us, it will shed around us an
atmosphere of love and peace and joy, with which no other
•lower can vie ; and in death, as in life, we shall bless God foi

ts possession, as for the dearest gift He has vouchsafed.
Would I then, some may exclaim, deny all privileges to

*omen — refuse to acknowledge their equality with man — do

PERIOD I. EVE. 43

jrrade them as the Jewish religion is falsely accused of doing ?
No ! for in the sight of- God, ^in their spiritual privileges, in
their peculiar gifts and endowments, the power of performing
their duties in their own sphere, in their responsibility, they are
on a perfect equality with man. But I would conjure them to
seek humility, simply from its magic power of keeping woman
in her own beautiful sphere, without one wish, one ambitious
whisper, to exchange it for another. While tle^e, while satisfied
and rejoicing in the infinite love and wisdom which placed us
there, we are not only in the privileges enumerated above, man's
equal, — but however in strength of frame, immense capability
of physical and mental exertion, in might and grasp of intellect,
his inferior ; yet in the depth and faithfulness of love, in the
capability of "fed'mg and enduring, in devotedness and fortitude
— alike in bodily and mental trial — we are unanswerably his
superior. Then has not woman enough to call for gratitude ?
Endowed with influence over the heart of man, — oh ! let her
remember for what fearful end Eve used that influence, and keep
a constant guard of watchfulness and prayer over her heart to
preserve her from its similar abuse. Let her remember the
employments of Eve in Eden, and so cultivate her intellectual
faculties in the study of God and nature, both animate and
inanimate, that her mind may be strengthened, and in the con
templation of the beauties of creation, she may learn the true
value of the beauty which may be hers. How small is its
relative proportion, and yet how blessedly it may be used, eveu
as the beauty of creation, for the glory of God, in its mild, sooth
ing, and benignant influence upon Ilis creatures !

Above all, let the history of Eve impress this truth upon the
hearts of her young descendants — that however weak and faulty
and abased, however sorrowing and bereaved, however reaping
in tears the effects of indiscretion or graver error, — yet stil the*
compassion, the long suffering, the exhaustless love of their
Father in Heaven is theirs ; that no circumstance in life can
deprive them of that love, can throw a barrier between woman's
yearning heart and the healing compassion of her God. No;
not even departure from Him, neglect, forgetfulness, will make
Him forget or cease to compassionate, if she will but return in
true repentance, and clinging faithfulness to his deep love once
more. We cannot measure that exhaustless fount — for as high
as the heaven from the earth, so great is its extent. We cannot

44 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

weary that never-ceasing mercy — for as far as the East is from
the West, so far, when we return to Him, doth He remove out
transgressions from us. And will woman — whose whole exist
ence still is love — neglect or despise these thrice-blessed privi
leges ; will the exile, the despised, the persecuted — for such
has been, and is, the woman of Israel — will she not receive with
grateful adoration the love vouchsafed, and ccme and make
manifest the Sustainer, the Comforter, the Mainspring of her
being? To woman of every creed, of every race, of every rank
— life, though it may seem blessed, is a fearful desert without
God. What then, without Him, is it to the woman of Israel,
the exile and the mourner, who hath no land, no hope, no com
forter but Him ?

CHAPTER II.

SARAH.

80 varied and so important are the incidents comprised in
the life of Eve, that, on a mere superficial view, Sarah's biogra
phy appears somewhat deficient in interest. Yet, as the beloved
partner of Abraham, she ought to be a subject of reverence and
love to her female descendants ; and we will endeavor to bring
her history forward, that such she may become. Much of the
Eternal's love and pity towards His female children is mani
fested in her simple life, and also in the life of her bondwoman,
Hagar, which is too closely interwoven with hers to be
omitted.

The real relationship between Abraham and Sarah, before
marriage, has never yet been clearly or satisfactorily solved ;
some commentators asserting she was his niece, the daughter
of Haran his elder brother ; and others, that she was, as Abra
ham himself declares, his half-sister — " She is the daughter of
my father, but not the daughter of my mother and she became

PERIOD I. SARAH. 45

toy wife." We believe the hitter assertion much more likely
to be the correct one, because, in the first place, there is no
foundation whatever for the idea that she was Ilarari's daughter,
except the supposition that Iscah means Sarah (Gen. xi. 29) ;
and, in the second, it is not probable that when ouestioned by
Abimelech, Abraham would have condescended to utter a false
hood. The Bible mentions Lot only as the child of Ilaran ;
and Abraham himself says, Sarah was his half-sister. The
latter relationship, as preventing marriage, is no proof in favor
of her being his niece, as no laws of marriage had yet been
issued ; and in the early stages of the world, such connexions
were not considered sin.

Leaving this difficult decision to more curious speculators, we
will proceed to subjects of greater interest. The first notice we
have of Sarai is her accompanying her husband and Lot from
the home of her kindred to a strange country, among all
strange people, in simple obedience to the word of God. Holy
writ is silent on the youth of Abram ; but it is the opinion of
our ancient fathers, that his earnest desire after divine know-
ledge — his pure and holy life — his affectionate and virtuous
conduct, attracted towards him the blessing of the Lord, and
caused him to be selected as the promulgator of the Divine
Revelation. That Abram was exposed to ninny dangers on
account of his loving obedience to the one sole invisible God,
instead of acknowledging the idols of his race, is indeed very
possible, and probably originated the first removal of his family
to Charran, where also his father accompanied him. At Char-
ran they seem to have dwelt in peace and prosperity, secured
from former persecutors, so that it must have been no little trial
to go forth again, more particularly without any definite cause
for the removal.

To Sarai the trial must have been more severe than to her
husband. She was to go forth with him indeed; but it is
woman's peculiar nature to cling to home, home ties, and homo
affections — to shrink from encountering a strange world, teem
ing with unknown trials and dangers. Rather than the parting
from a husband, indeed, all other partings may seem light ; but
yet they are trials to a gentle woman : and the heart that can
leave the home and friends of a happy youth — the associations
of years — without regret, proves not that its affections are so
Centred on one object as to eschew all others ; but that it is

16 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

too often wrapped in a chilling indifference, which prevents
strong emotions on any subject whatever. We have enough
of Sarai in the Bible to satisfy us that such is not her charac
ter.

One cause for the love of home ties and associations, in the
heart of a right-feeling woman, originates in the belief that
there she can do so much more good than elsewhere — that,
unfitted by the weakness and infirmities of her frame from active
toil, and the pursuit of goodly service, as falls to the lot of
man, she can yet benefit her friends, children, and domestics, in
the hallowed circle of home ; and better manifest the blessings
of the Lord and the love she bears Him, there than amongst
strangers. And this was especially the case with Sarai. By
one of our ancient fathers it is said, that as Abram and Lot
were permitted to turn many of their own sex from idolatry to
the knowledge of the one true God, so also was Sarai granted
the hallowed privilege of leading many of her female friends
and domestics to the same blessed Fount. It was therefore, no
doubt, a source of questioning and wonder in her mind, why
the Eternal's mandate to go forth should be given. She had
not even experience in the Eternal's glorious attributes, as dis
played in His dealings with His creatures, and through His
word, to comfort and be her guide. All was mental darkness
in the world around her, except her husband and those few
whom he had been enabled to teach a partial knowledge of his
God. They stood alone in their peculiar faith ; and how often,
in such a case, do doubts and fears enter the breast of woman !
Yet it was enough that her husband prepared without question
or hesitation to obey his God — to leave his aged father, his
kindred, and his friends ; and, with simple and loving faith, she
went with him where the Lord should lead. Well is it for us
when we can do so likewise ; when, in some of those bitterest
trials that woman's heart can know, the change of home or
land, be it with our parents, or, husband, or mure fearful still,
alone, we can yet so stay upon our God that we can realize His
presence, His loving mercy directing our weary way, and resting
with us still. His direct communing by voice or sign, or
through angelic messengers, is indeed no longer ours; but
those that seek to love and serve Him may yet hear His still
Bmall voice breathing in the solemn whisper of their own hearts,
and through the individual promises of His word.

PERIOD I.

A R A H . 41

Accompanied by Lot and their household — expressed in the
^rrn " the souls they had gotten in Charran," who were pro-
oably those whom they had instructed in the true faith— and
carrying with them the substance they possessed, Abram and
Sana ''went forth into the land of Canaan," which was inha
bited bv a fierce people, and gave little hope of ever being
possessed by the patriarch and his family, for by their constant
'iournevings it would seem as if they could not even obtain
sufficient land to fix their home. Yet, there again the Lord
appeared to the patriarch and renewed His promise — thus
provin^ His tender compassion for the human weakness of His
creatures, and encouraging their faith, when,, without such
encouragement, He knew it must have failed. To add to their
numerous human discomforts and trials, a famine broke out \n
the land, so severe and grievous that Abram sought the land of
Egypt ; and there, rendered fearful by the exceeding beauty of
his wife, and the supposed barbarity of the land, he bade Sarsn
call herself his sister, not his wife.

In this first deception, however, Abram was much more to b<»
excused than in the second. He had not yet had all the con
vincing proofs of the Eternal's tender watchfulness and care, M
he had afterwards. He had gone to Egypt without the express
command of the Lord, and this very fact, to one accustomed tc
divine guidance, and not yet perhaps feeling himself sufficiently
strong spiritually to go alone, rendered him more fearful thar
he would otherwise have been. He might also have thought,
that as he was destined for a great end, it was his duty to use
any means to preserve the life so appointed, without sufficiently
considering that life and death were equally in the hands of th<>
Eternal, and that He would preserve His servant alive, without
the intervention of human means. Spiritual advancement
requires effort, perseverance, and experience, as well as every
other; and Abram himself, though the elect of the Eternal,
could not obtain perfection and firmness in faith without some
human tremblings, which it is enough for us to know, were
overruled, compassionated, and forgiven. We perceive by the
sacred narrative, that his intention was frustrated, and his words
caused the very evil he dreaded ; — which is sufficient warning
for us to avoid all departure from the straight line of truth —
while the continued care and favor of the Lord should check
our presumptuous condemnation, and remind us. that if Hi»

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

justice and mercy thought proper to overrule and forgive, and
continue, nay increase, His long tenderness towards Abram and
his family, it is our part, instead of marvelling, to thank God
that such weakness is recorded, that we may not feel it is human
perfection alone which calls down His blessing, and so shrink
back in terror and despair.

This part of Sarai's history gives us information generally
very interesting to young female readers— that she was very
beautiful. We are wont to imagine that the charms of sixty-
five could not be very remarkable ; but reckoning according to
the age to which mortals then lived, she was not older than a
woman of thirty or five-and-thirty would be now, consequently
in her prime ; endowed, as her history gives us authority to
suppose, with a quiet, retiring dignity, which greatly enhanced
twr beauty, and rendered it yet more interesting than that of
girlhood.

Protected from this danger, his substance greatly increased by
Pharaoh's gifts, Abram, his wife, and household, retraced fcheii
steps to^where " his tent had been at first, between Bethel and
Hai." The altar which he had originally erected was still
there, and again he and his family "called on the name of the
Lord." The command of Pharaoh — " Go thy way," was most
probably regarded and acted on by the patriarch as a warning,
that his safest and most hallowed home was in the land to whicl
the Lord had originally guided him.

In the events which follow — the separation of Abram and Lot
— the battle of the kings — the imprisonment and rescue of
Lot— the blessing of Melchisedek — Holy Writ makes no men-
lion of Sarai. She was performing those duties of an affec
tionate wife and gentle mistress of her husband's immense
establishment, which are nothing to write about, but which
make up the sum of woman's life, create her dearest and purest
sources of happiness, and bring her acceptably before God. Hei
home was still an unsettled one. The Lord had again appeared
to renew His promises to Abram — comforting him in the
sorrow which Lot's choice of a dwelling in the sinful Sodom had
Occasioned him, by the assurance that all the land which he saw,
northward and southward, eastward and westward, would He
give unto him and to his seed, and his seed's seed for ever.
That he was to "Arise, and walk through the land, in the
oreadth of it and in the length of it. for I will give it uutn

PERIOD I. SARAH. 49

tlice." In consequence of which, the tent of the patriarch was
removed southward, to Mamre in Hebron, and an altar built, at
once to claim the land in the name of the Lord, and give to
A brain and his household a place where to worship. The
extent of the patriarch's household may be imagined by the
fact, that at his word, no less than three hundred and eighteen
servants, born in his house and trained to arms, accompanied
him to the rescue of his nephew. Those who were left to
attend to his flocks and herds, which he possessed in great
numbers, must have been in equal proportion ; and over these,
during his absence, Sarai, assisted by the steward, had unlimited
dominion.

. The beautiful confidence and true affection subsisting between
Abram and Sarai, marks unanswerably their equality ; that his
wife was to Abram friend as well as partner; and yet, that
Sarai knew perfectly her own station, and never attempted to
push herself forward in unseemly counsel, or use the influence
which she so largely possessed for any weak or sinful purpose.
Some, however, would have found it difficult to preserve their
humility and meekness, situated as was Sarai. A coarser and
narrower mind would have prided herself on the promises made
her husband, imagining there must be some superlative merit,
either in herself or Abram, to be so singled out by thevEternal.
There is no pride so dangerous and subtle as spiritual pride, no
sin more likely to gain dominion in the early stages of religion
— none so disguised, and so difficult to be discovered and
rooted out. But in Sarai there was none of this ; not a particle
of pride, even at a time when, of all others, she might have been
almost justified in feeling it. She was, indeed, blessed in a
husband whose exalted, yet domestic and affectionate character
must ever have strengthened, guided, and cherished hers ; but
it is not always the most blessed and distinguished woman who
attends the most faithfully to her domestic duties, and preserves
unharmed and untainted that meekness and integrity which is
her greatest charm.

Abram 's warlike expedition was the only one in which his
wife did not accompany him. With what joy she must have
wobomed her warrior lord ! How gratefully must her loving
heart have delighted to ponder on his magnanimity, in goino
in;,tantly to the rescue of his weak and little grateful nephew ;•—
on his courage — his success ; and yet more on his noble refusal

50 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

of al gifts from the king of Sodom, lest the glory should be taken
from the Lord, and any mortal should say, "I have made
Abram rich." We dwell with delight on the stirring records of
chivalry ; and it is right we should do so, for the study of all
honorable, unselfish, and unworldly deeds must do us good ;
but where shall we find, in the whole history of chivalry, an
instance of such perfect nobility and magnanimity, unstained by
one action from which mind or heart could revolt, as in the only
warlike expedition of Abram ? It was indeed enough for a
woman to glory in : and, though nothing is said, for the record
of Moses is too important to descend to the thoughts and feel
ings of woman, we may well imagine the grateful and rejoicing
feelings of Sarai, as she welcomed her husband home — foro-et-
ting all the pangs of parting and loneliness of separation, in the
triumph and delight of such a meeting.

It was after these things, that we have the first allusion to
the patriarch's being childless. And by the words it which the
Lord addressed him — " Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and
exceeding great reward," we are led to suppose that some
anxious thoughts, and perhaps doubts, natural to humanity,
were occupying his mind. We, weak and frail as himself,
might exclaim, What, still doubting, still fearing, when he has
had so many proofs of the Eternal's providence and care ! But
God, whose " thoughts are not as our thoughts," instead of
reproving, addresses him in terms of the tenderest love and
encouragement, for He knew the nature of His creatures, and
that faith could not be perfectly attained without vears of
watchfulness and prayer ; that if it were, man would cease to
be man, and this life be no longer what it was intended — a life
of trial. Abram's instant reply reveals the painful thoughts
which had engrossed him : — " Lord God, what wilt thou give
me ? seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this
Eliezer of L)amascus. Behold, to me thou hast given no seed,
ard lo, one born in my house is mine heir." God had promised
that the land should be his and his seed's, but Abram in sorrow
beheld years pass, and still he had no child. Sarai had long
oassed the age when, humanly speaking, she could be a mother.
it was much more, natural — truly pious and faithful as he was
— that Abram should be harassed with contradictory fears and
doubts, than that he should have had none. God had promised,
but how was that promise to be fulfilledl-^-unless, indeed, not

PERIOD I. SARAH. 51

his own child, but " one born in his house" was to be his destined
heir. This appeared perhaps the most probable, though it was
painfully disappointing ; and to soothe this fear and remove it,
the Lord addressed him as we have said. The gracious and
most blessed promise directly followed — that not one born in
his house, but his own son should be his heir ; and, bidding him
look up at the stars — as countless and numberless they gemmed
the clear, bright heavens — promised, that " so should his seed
be." And then it was, that — all of doubt and mist and fear
dissolving in the heart of the patriarch, before the words of the
Lord, as snow before the sun — HE BELIEVED ; and that pure
FAITH was accounted to him as RIGHTEOUSNESS. How blessed
are those words ! In every station of life, however tried, and
sad, and mourning, and deprived of all power to serve the Lord
as our hearts dictate, we may yet BELIEVE, and Faith is still
accounted RIGHTEOUSNESS.

On the glorious prophetic vision which followed when the sun
went down, we may not linger, as it will take us too far from
the subject of our narrative.

Great must have been Sarai's joy when this gracious promise
was made known to her. If to Abram the being childless was
a source of deep regret, it must have been still more so to her.
Loving and domestic, as her whole history proves she was, how
often may she have yearned to list the welcome cry of infancy ;
to feel one being look up to her for protection and love, and
call her by that sweet name — Mother. But this joyful antici
pation could only have been of short duration. Sarai, as is
woman's nature, in all probability imagined the fulfilment
would immediately follow the promise. The most difficult of
all our spiritual attainments is to wait for the Lord : to believe
still, through long months, perhaps years, of anticipation and
disappointment, that as He has said it, so it will be, so it must be,
though our finite wisdom cannot pronounce the when. Did the
Eternal fulfil His gracious promises on the instant, where would
bo the trial of our faith, and of our confidence and constancy in
p ayer ?

Finding still there was no appearance of her becoming a
mother, we are led to suppose, by the events which follow, that
all Sarai's joyous anticipations turned into gloomy fears, not
merely from the belief that she herself would not be blessed
with a child, but that Abram might, as was and is the custom
3

52 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

of Eastern nations, take another wife ; an idea excited, perhaps,
by the recollection that her name had not been mentioned at
the destined mother of the promised seed, but precisely the
most painful which could find entrance in a heart affectionate
and faithful as her own. To prevent this misfortune, and yet
to further (as she supposed) the will of the Eternal, Sarai had
recourse to human means.

All women in her position, and influenced as she was by the
manners and customs of the East, would have both felt and
acted as she did, but few, we think, would have waited so long.
It was ten years after Abram had left Egypt to fix his residence
in Canaan, before Hagar became his wife. The separation
of himself and Lot appears to have taken place in the first
year after their settlement in Canaan, the expedition against the
kings in the second or third year following. And we are
expressly told, that it was soon after these occurrences that the
Lord appeared unto the patriarch, and promised him an heir in
his own child ; the Hebrew word, i£» (after), signifying, accord
ing to Rashi, that the event about to lie related took place soon after
the period of the former narration; but when a long period has
intervened, the expression ^rrtt is used.*

According to this reckoning, then, full five, or at the very
least three, years must Lave elapsed between the promise made
to Abram and his taking Hagar, at Sarai's own request, to be
his wife ; and few women would have beheld year after year
pass, each year increasing the improbability of her becoming a
mother, and yet so believed as to adopt no human means for
the furtherance of her wishes. In perusing and reflecting on
the blessings promised, and revelations made to the favored
servants of the Lord, we are apt to suppose that their lives were
preserved from all trouble, all trial of delay, from the fearful
sickness of anticipation disappointed, and hope deferred; whereas,
a more intimate study of the holy Scriptures would convince us,
that though indeed most spiritually blessed, their mortal lives
were not more exempt from labor, and all the sorrows proceed-
fng from human emotions, than our own. We only see those
periods on which the broad light of sunshine falls. The darket

9 See " The Sacred Scriptures, Hebrew a~d English," translated '.»»
the Rev. D A De Sola, &c. Note to verse 1 of chap. xvi.

PERIOD I. S A. R A H . 5

•hades of human doubt, the often supposed blighting of hope
the struggles and terrors of the spirit alternating with the rest
and confidence which it sometimes enjoys ; these we see not,
and, therefore, pronounce them unknown to our forefathers ;
whereas, did we examine more closely, we should not find
severer trials in our own lives than in theirs : nor cease to
believe, for a single moment, that the God who guided them
through the dark shadows of human trials, and strengthened
them with the light of His presence, does not equally guide
and reveal Himself to us.

The first human evidence that Sarai's scheme would be pro
ductive of vexation and sorrow, as well as of joy, was her
disappointment with regard to Hagar's continued humility and
submission. Forgetful that it was to her mistress, humanly
speaking, she owed the privileges now hers, the Egyptian so far
forgot herself, as to feel and make manifest that Sarai "was
despised in her eyes." Alas, how mournfully does that brief
sentence breathe of woman's fallen nature ! How apt are we to
exalt ourselves for imaginary superiority — to look down on those
who have served us, when God has bestowed on us privileges
of which they are deprived. We forget, often through thought
lessness, that those very things of which we are so proud, come
not from ourselves, but from Him who might equally have
vouchsafed them to others. We may not indeed have the same
incitement to pride and presumption as Hagar, but have we
r.ever despised others for the want of those accomplishments,
those advantages, that beauty, and other gifts from God, which
we ourselves may possess 1 Aye, sometimes, though we trust
such emotions are rare as they are sad, the parents who have
toiled and labored to give us advantages of dress and education
far above what they possessed themselves — the elder sister, who
is contented and rejoiced to remain in the background, that
younger and fairer ones, whom she loves with almost a mother's
love, may come forward — the homely and older-fashioned aunt,
to whom, perhaps, a sister's orphan family owe their all — these
are the beings whom the young and thoughtless but too often
secretly despise, as if their superior advantages had come from
themselves, not from God, through loving relatives and friends.

And this was the case with Hagar. A superficial reading of
the Bible often causes Sarai to be most unjustly blamed for undue
harshness. We think only of Hagar's wanderings in the wilder

54 THE WOMEN OF I'SRAEL

ness, and pity her as cruelly treated, and suppose, that as the
Most High relieved her through His angel, she had never been
in any way to blame. Now, though to sympathize with the
sorrowing and afflicted be one of our purest and best feelings, it
must not so blind us as to prevent our doing justice to the inflic-
tor of that affliction. We candidly avow, that until lately we too
thought Sarai harsh and unjust, and rather turned from thau
admired her character : but we have seen the injustice of
this decision, and, therefore, without the smallest remaining pre
judice, retract it altogether: retract it, simply because the words
of the angel are quite sufficient proof that Hagar had been wrong,
and Sarai's chastisement just, or he would not have commanded
her, as Sarai's bondwoman, to return and submit herself to her
mistress's power, without any reservation whatever.

It must indeed have been a bitterly painful disappointment to
Sarai, that instead of receiving increased gratitude and affection
from one whom she had so raised and cherished, she was despised
with an insolence that, unless checked, might bring discord and
misery in a household which had before been so blessed with
peace and love. Sarai's was not a character to submit tamely to
ingratitude. There was neither coldness nor indifference about
her. In no part of the Bible, either in character or precept, dc
we perceive the necessity or the merit of that species of cold
indifference, which is by some well-meaning religious persons
supposed to be the self-control and pious forgiveness of injuries
most acceptable to God. The Patriarchal and Jewish history
alike prove, that natural feelings were not to be trampled upon.
The Hebrew code was formed by a God of love for the nature of
man, not angels — formed so as to be obeyed, not to be laid aside
as impracticable. The passions and feelings of the East were
very different to those of the calmer and colder North ; and
nowhere in Holy Writ are we told that those feelings and emotions
must be annihilated. Subdued and guided indeed, as must be
the consequence of a true and strict adherence to the law of God,
and impartial study of His word ; but in the sight of a God of
love, indifference can never be, and never was, religion.

Yet even this, an affair of feeling entirely between herself and
Hagar, could not urge Sarai to any line of conduct unauthorized
by her husband. Naturally indignant, she complained to him,
perhaps, too, with some secret fear that Hagar, favored so much
above herself by the hope of her giving him a son, might be

PERIOD I v SARAH 55

unduly justified and protected. But it was not so. Abranrs
answer at once convinced her that Ilagar had not taken her place ;
nay, that though Abrara could not do otherwise than feel tender
ness and kindness towards her, he at once recognised Sarai's
supremacy, both as his wife and Hagar's mistress, and bade her
u do with her what seemeth good to thee." We have so many
proofs of Abram's just, affectionate, and forgiving character, that
we may fully believe he would never have said this, if he had
not been convinced that it was no unjust accusation on the part
of Sarai. He knew, too, that she was not likely to inflict rnoi«
punishment than was deserved, particularly on a favorite slave ;
and, therefore, it was with his full consent " Sarai afflicted her,
and she tied from her presence."

Whatever the nature of this affliction, it could not have been
very severe — neither pain nor restraint — for Ilagar had the
power to fly. Reproof to an irritable and disdainful mind is often
felt as intolerable, and given too, as it no doubt was, with
severity, and at a time when Hagar felt exalted and superior to
all around her, even to her mistress, her proud spirit urged flight
instead of submission, and not till addressed by the voice of the
angel did those rebellious feelings subside.

There was no mistaking the angelic voice, and his first words
destroyed the proud dreams which she had indulged. "Ilagar,
Sarai's bondwoman !" he said, and the term told her in the sight
of God she was still the same, " whence earnest thou, and
whither art thou going ?" It was not because he knew not
that he thus spoke. The messengers of the Lord need no
enlightenment on the affairs of men, but their questions are
adapted to the nature of men, to awaken them to consciousness,
to still the tumult of human passion, and by clear and simple
questioning compel a clear and true reply. Had his command
to return been given without preparation, Hagar's obedience
would have been the effect of fear, not conviction. But those
simple questions, u whence earnest thou ? whither art thou going ?"
startled her from the tumultuous emotions of rebellion and pre
sumption. Whence had she come ? From a happy, loving
home, where she had been the favorite of an indulgent and
gentle mistress ; a home which would speedily be to her yet
dearer, as the birthplace of her child ; that child who was to be
the supposed heir to her master and all his sainted privileges :
from friends, from companions, all whom she had loved : an»'

56 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

she had left them ! i And whither was she goino- ? How
she answer when she knew not ? Was she about to resll
of affection, privilege, joy, to wander in the wilderness, helpless
and alone ? How idle and impotent now seemed her previous
feelings. Those simple questions had flashed back light on her
darkened heart, arid humbled her at once; and simply and
truthfully she answered, "I flee from the presence of my mistress
Sarai;" thus meekly acknowledging that Sarai was still her
mistress, and that her derision had indeed been wrong. Reproof,
therefore, followed not ; but the angel bade her, " Return to thy
mistress, and submit thyself to her power." And, perceivini
that her repentance was sincere, and would lead to obedience*,
he continued graciously to promise that her seed should be
multiplied, so that it should not be numbered for multitude ;
that her son should bear a name which would ever remind her
that God had heard her affliction, with other promises concern
ing that son, yet none which might lead her to the deceitful
belief that he would be Abram's promised seed.

Inexpressibly consoled, in the midst of her bitter self-reproach,
and convinced, bv his supernatural voice and disappearance, that
it was indeed an angel direct from the Lord with whom she had
spoken, it is evident from the context, although not there men
tioned, that Hagar must have unhesitatingly obeyed, and returned
to her mistress— convinced of her error— submissive and re
pentant, and been by Sarai received with returning confidence
and full forgiveness.

In due course of time the promise was fulfilled, and Hagar, to
the great joy of Abram, had a son, whom Abram called Ishmael,
thus proving that Hagar must have imparted the visit of the
angel, and his command as to the name of her son.

Before we proceed, we would entreat our younger readers to
pause one moment on the simple facts we have related ; and so
take it to their hearts, that the first words of the ano-el may
oecome theirs as well as Hagar's. We have not indeed the
direct communings with the messengers of the Lord, as is recorded
in the Bible; but we are not left "unguided and unquestioned.
v> e have still an angelic voice within us, that, would we but
encourage it to speak— would we but listen to it— can, even as
the angel's, still the wild torrent of passion, awaken us to our
neglected duty, and lead us, repentant and sorrowing, to those
whom we may have offended. God has not left us without His

PERIOD I. SARAH. i>7

witness. The VOICE OF CONSCIENCE may be to us what
visits were to our ancestors of old. There is no period of our
lives in which it is wholly lost ; but in youth it is strongest and
most thrilling. In youth it is, that we awake from the (often)
stagnant sleep of earlier years ; — we awake to a consciousness of
bright, glowing, beautiful existence ; — we become conscious of a
deep yearning after the good, and at the same time sorrowfully
fool, that it is not quite as easy to attain as we believed it. As
our emotions and feelings spring into life, so does conscience.
We become aware of a peculiar thrilling sense of joy, when we
have accomplished good, either in conquering ourselves— in
giving up a selfish inclination — or in showing kindness, affection,
and respect to others. There is a glowing sense of joy, when
conscience tells us we have done well, unlike the joy proceeding
from any other cause ; and as it approves, with an angel voice
that will be heard, so does it disapprove. We may stifle it —
*e may refuse to listen to its still small tones — yet we cannot
shake off the depression and the sadness which it leaves. We
may refuse to know wherefore we thus feel ; but it is conscience
still. JJow much better, then, to permit its having voice and
power, and, as it dictates, do — to encourage it at times to speak,
and ever keep its silent watch, for we need it, oh ! how powerfully
we need it. How fearful is our responsibility if we permit it to
lie unused ; for more strongly than aught else does it breathe
our approval, or our condemnation, in the sight of the Lord. Is
there one amongst us that has not felt, at one time or other,
emotions similar to those of Hagar — anger at reproof, scorn of
those who reprove, rebellion against their dictates ; and we would
fly from their presence with wrath at our hearts, and rebellion
on our lips ; and at such times does the voice of conscience never
steal over us with question* similar to these? " Whence comest
thou? Whither wouldst thou flee ? What wouldst thou do ?"
startling us from wrath, often and often into a burst of passionate
and sett-reproachful, though, as yet, only half-repentant tears.
And when that prtssion in a degree is stilled — when affection and
reason softly and pleadingly resume their sway, does not the anjH
voice bid u-> av*o " return" unto those whom we have oftvnded ?
submit to their control ? It is wisest, best, though our wayward
spirits shrink from it, proud of their own will, desirous of undue
freedom. And at such times, oh ! well it is for us, now and here
after, if, even as Hagar, we return and submit, and thus

58 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

acknowledge the power of that inward voice ! Its angelic whispei
will come to us again ; we need not fear them, nor shrink from a
lonely path — we have within us the " angel of the Lord." Bui
those who hear yet refuse to heed, drowning that heavenly
whisper by plunging anew into, gaiety and pleasure, or stifling
it by unwonted industry, are exposing themselves to distant but
untold of sorrows. It will, indeed, be long ere conscience
becomes so silenced as not to intrude, but she will at length ;
and then, when, in agony of spirit, we wake from our vain dream,
and would give worlds, if we had them, to feel as we have felt-
to hear once more the voice of conscience thrilling and directing
as in happier years — to be awake to the consciousness of our
faults, that we might correct and subdue them — and feel once
more the glowing approval of our strivings after good, oh ! how
agonizing must be the conviction — it is we who have spurned,
neglected, and so silenced the angel of the Lord, that it must be
a long, long, and weary interval of pain, and toil, and watching,
ere we may list those sweet low spiritual tones again. Better,
far better, the momentary pain and humility of acknowledgment
and submission. Better, far better, the too tender conscience,
giving pain, in some cases apparently unnecessarily, than its
silence and stagnation ; for it MUST one day awake, and dreadful
will be that waking. To obtain this blessed influence — to feel
that to us is sent, as to our ancestors, " the angel of the Lord" —
we have but to study the word of God and ourselves. It may cost
us at first many sad and weary hours — many bitter tears — and
many a secret pang ; for it is hard so to know ourselves as to
see faults and failings which others see not. — It is hard to restrain
the too frequent indulgence of favorite pleasures, because we
know they will do us harm. — It is hard sometimes to perform a
disagreeable, nay a painful duty, only because we feel we ought,
though our friends see not the necessity ; — hard, when friends
approve, for our hearts to disapprove ; and all this we must
encounter, would we study ourselves and God's word, till our
hearts become shrines for his guiding angel. But oh ! and
depressing as all this may seem, it is but a grain in the balance
compared to the deep thrilling joy which is its accompaniment.
Those who have once felt the glow of approving conscience — •
the strength, encouragement, consolation, hope, which it gives
when all around is desolate and dark, who feel that, hand-in-hand
with faith and prayer, it is leading u? safely and blessedly through

PERIOD I. SARAH. 59

the stonv paths of earth, even through the dark valley of death,
up to the glowing and immortal light of heaven, will welcome
even its severest pang to call it theirs, and hail it as, indeed, the
angel of the Lord.

It may be that Sarai's correction of Hagar was unduly harsh,
although we have no warrant in Scripture for so believing; but
it is evident, as there is no further mention of contention and
disagreement between them, that she received her submission
with gentleness, and restored her to favor. Tt is well when
forgiveness is thus recorded : many and many a young meek
spirit would obey the voice of the angel and return, in humility
and love, could they but be sure that submission would be gentty
and lovingly received ; and shrink from it only because the
diillino- reception, the uttered but not felt reconciliation, falls upon
their still quivering hearts with a pang and degradation which
they feel that as yet they cannot bear. The spirit of that healing
and consoling love which has its birth in religion, must guide both
the offended and the offender, or reconciliation never can bo
complete ; nor the latter be securely and convincingly led back
to that better path to which the angel points. The pang of
unrequited confidence, chilled affection, and all the bitterness of
unnecessary degradation, will be stronger at first than the
approving glow of conscience ; while a contrary reception, even
though it may heighten the pang of self-reproach, will soothe
and encourage, for the inward voice whispers— we have done
well ; and, from that moment, the heavenly messenger assumes
her mild dominion in the heart, never to be lured thence again.
For thirteen years Abram and Sarai must have looked upon
Ishmael as the promised seed ; for though, not actually so said,
there was neither spiritual sign nor human hope of the patriarch
having any other child. At the end of that period, however,
the Most High again appeared unto Abram, proclaiming Him
self as the ALMIGHTY,— a fit introduction to the event He was
about to foretell ; and bidding His favored servant, " W alk
before me, and be thou perfect," perfect in trust, in faith, with
out any regard to human probabilities, for, as Almighty God,
all things were possible with Him. The name of the patriarch
was then changed, as a sign of the many nations over whom he
was appointed father— the land again promised him— and the
covenant appointed which was to mark his descendants as the
chosen of the Lord, the everlasting inheritors of Canaan ; and

*0 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

bear witness, to untold-of ages, of the truth of the Lord's word
and the election of His people. This proclaimed and com'
mandedj the Eternal commenced His information of the miracle
He was about to perform, by desiring Abraham to call his wife
no longer Sarai *njp but Sarah mjp— a change which our
ancient fathers suppose to mean the same as from Abram to
Abraham. " Sarai, signifying a lady or princess in a restricted
sense, imported that she was a lady, or princess, to Abram
only ; whereas the latter name signifies princess or lady abso
lutely, indicating that she would thus be acknowledged by
many, even as Abraham was to become the father of many
nations."* A meaning perfectly reconcilable with the verse
which follows : "And I will bless her, and give thee a son also
of her : yea, I will bless her, so that she shall be a mother oj
nations ; kings of people shall be of her." She was, therefore,
no longer a princess over Abraham's household, but a princess
in royal rank, from whom kings should descend. Joy must
have been the first emotion of Abraham's heart at this miracu
lous announcement, mingled with a feeling of wonder and
astonishment how such a thing could be; but then, in his
peculiarly affectionate heart, came the thought of his first-born
Ishmael, and with earnestness he prayed, u Oh ! that Ishmael
might live before thee !" And though the Eternal could not
grant this prayer, for the seed of Abraham, from whom His
chosen people would spring, must be of pure and unmixed birth,
He yet, with compassionating tenderness, soothed the father's
anxious love, by the gracious promise that, though Sarah's child
must be the seed with whom His covenant should be established,
yet Ishmael also should be blessed and multiplied exceedingly,
and become, even as Isaac, the father of a great nation. " And
for Ishmael I have also heard thee." How blessed an encou
ragement for us to pour forth our prayers unto the Lord, proving,
how consolingly, that no prayer is offered in vain ; for if He
cannot grant as our infinite wishes would dictate, He will yet
hear us — yet fulfil our prayer far better for our welfare, arid the-
welfare of our beloved ones, than our own wishes could have
accomplished, had they been granted to the full.

The acceptance of the covenant throughout Abraham's house-

* See note to Gen. :;vii 15, m the Rev. D. A. De Sola's translation c(
liife Bible.

PERIOD I . — SARAH. 61

bold, and the change in her own name, must, of course, have
been imparted by Abraham to his wife, with the addition of the
startling promise, that she too, even at her advanced age, should
bear a son. Yet by her behavior, when the promise was
repeated in the following chapter, it would appear that, though
informed of it, she had dismissed it from her mind as a thing
impossible. Accustomed to regard Ishmael as the only seed of
Abraham — to suppose her scheme had been blessed, more par
ticularly as she had never been named before as the mother of
the chosen seed — the hope of being so had long since ent>ely
faded; and, not having attained the simple questionless faith
of her husband, she, in all probability, dismissed the the ight, as
recalling too painfully those ardent hopes and wishes, which she
had with such difficulty previously subdued. Engaged, as was
her wont, in her domestic duties, she was one day interrupted
oy the hasty entrance of her husband, requiring her "• quickly
to prepare three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make it
into cakes." Patriarchal hospitality was never satisfied by com
mitting to hirelings only the fit preparations for a hearty wel
come. We see either ^arah herself making the desired cakes,
or closely superintending her domestics in doing so ; and the
patriarch hastening, in the warmth of his hospitality, himself to
fetch a calf from the herd, to give it to a young man to dress it,
though he had abundance of servants around him to save him
the exertion. Yet both Abraham and Sarah were of the nobility
of the Eternal's creating. lie had raised them above theii
fellows, and bestowed on them the patent of an aristocracy, with
which not one of the nations could vie, for it came from God
Himself, lie had changed their names to signify their royal
claims — to make them regarded in future ages as noble ances
tors of a long line of prophets, kings, princes, and nobles ; and
there was a refinement, a nobleness, a magnanimity of character
in both the patriarch and his wife, which, breathing through
their very simplicity, betrayed their native aristocracy, and
marked them of that princely race which has its origin in the
(Savor and election of the King of kings. The primitive sim
plicity of our first fathers generally impresses the mind with the
mistaken idea of their being simply farmers or agriculturists,
ooth of which they certainly were, but not these alone, as sup
posed in the present acceptation of the term. They were
princes and nobles, not only in their mental superiority but in

62 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

their immense possessions — in their large and well ordered hoi.so
holds, in the power they possessed both in their own establish
ments and in the adjoining lands, and in the respect and sub
mission ever paid them by the nations with whom they might
have held intercourse. Abraham was never addressed save as
4t My Lord," either by his own domestics or other nations ; thug
acknowledged as superior, and of noble if not royal rank, by
those who could scarcely be supposed to understand why he
was so, save by the outward signs of landed possession and large
establishment. Those who think so much of noble descent and
princely connexion, would do well to remember this — that
impoverished, scattered, chastised, for a " little moment,'' as we
are — yet, that if we are children and descendants of Abraham
— ISRAELITES not only in seeming but in heart — we are
descended from the aristocracy of the Lord — from a higher and
nobler race than even Gentile kings may boast ; a privilege and
glory of which no circumstance, no affliction, no persecution can
deprive us — ours, through all and every event of life, unless
we cast it from us by the dark deed of forsaking, for ambition,
or gold, or power, the banner of our blessed faith — the religion
of our God.

Yet noble, even princely, as were Abraham and Sarah, it
was no sign of rank, with them, to be cold and restrained by
false artificial laws. In the Bible, nobility was nature and heart,
simplicity and benevolence, cordiality and warmth ; no cold
ness, no indifference, no folding up the affections and the
impulses of feeling in the icy garment of pride and fashion,
which so often turns to selfishness, and so utterly prevents all
of benevolence and social good. Abraham knew not, at his
first invitation, the rank or mission of his visitors. His address
was one of the hearts respect, not the mere politeness of the
lip ; and the warmth of his welcome would not permit of his
sitting idly down while hirelings prepared their meal — nay, we
find that, even while they sat down to partake of it, their host
stood, — a mark of profound respect, which a further considera
tion of their majestic aspect prompted, by the supposition that
they were more than ordinary mortals.

Sarah joined not her husband or his guests. The modest
and dignified customs of the East prevented all intrusion, or
even the wish to intrude. Unless particularly asked for, the
place of the Eastern and Jewish wife was in the retirement of

PERIOD I . SARAH. 03

home ; not from any inferiority of rank, or servitude of station,
but simply because their inclination so prompted. The strangers
might have business with Abraham, which, if needed, he would
impart to her ; there was no occasion for her to come forward.
But, while seated in the inner tent, engaged in her usual
avocations, she heard her own name, " Where is Sarah, thy
wife ?" and her husband's reply, " She is in the tent," followed
by words that must indeed have sounded strange and improba
ble, " Sarah, thy wife, shall bear a son ;" yet, improbable as
they might have seemed, there is no excuse for the laugh of
incredulity with which they were received. Already prepared
by the previous promise of the Lord, the words should at
once have revealed the heavenly nature of those who spake,
and been heard with faith and thankfulness ; but Sarah thought
only of the human impossibility. Strange as it is, that such
unbelief should be found in the beloved partner of Abraham,
yet her laugh proves that even she was not exempt from the
natural feelings of mortality — the looking to human means and
human possibilities alone ; forgetting that with God all things
are possible. Yet, to us, the whole of this incident is consoling.
It proves that even Sarah was not utterly free from human
infirmities ; and yet that the Eternal, through His angel,
deigned graciously to reprove, not to chastise. It proves that
God has compassion on the nature of His erring children ; for
he knows their weakness. Man would have been wroth with
the laugh of scorn, and withdrawn his intended favor ; but
" the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh,
saying, Shall I, who am old, indeed bear a child ? Is anything
too mighty for the Lord ? At the time appointed I will return
unto thee, and Sarah shall indeed have a son." The gracious
mildness of the rebuke — the blessed repetition of the promise
— must, to one so affectionate as Sarah, have caused the bitter
est reproach ; but, weakly listening to fear instead of repentance,
she denied her fault, seeking thus mistakenly to extenuate it.
But He said, " Nay, but thou didst laugh," proving that her
innermost thoughts were known ; and, silenced at once, left to
the solitude of her own tent, for Abraham accompanied his
guests on the road to Sodom, we know quite enough of Sarah's
character to rest satisfied that repentance and self-abasement
tor unbelief, mingled with, and hallowed the burst of rejoicing
thankfulness with which she must have looked forward to ao

34 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

event so full of bliss to her indi \idually, and so blessed a reve«
lation of the Lord's deep love for Abraham and herself. Nearly
twenty years had passed since the first promise of an heir in his
own child had been given. Years, long, full of incident ana
feeling, seeming in their passing an interval long enough for the
utter forgetfulness of the promise, save as it was supposed
fulfilled in the birth of Ishmael ; but now, in the retrospect, the
promise flashed back with a vividness, a brightness, as if scarce
a single year had passed ere it had been given : and Sarah
must have felt self-reproached in the midst of her joy, that siio
had not waited, had not trusted, had not believed unto the end
And many a one, ere life has closed, will feel as she did ; not
indeed, from the same cause — but often and often a prayer ha£
been offered up, a promise given from the word of God, and
both have been forgotten, neglected, mistrusted, through long
weary years — as vainly prayed and vainly answered — and
yet, ere life has closed, recalled as by a flash of sudden light,
by the divine answer to the one, and gracious fulfilment of the
other.

Before the birth of Isaac, however, Abraham and his family
once more removed their dwelling, partly, it may be supposed,
to fultil the words of the Lord previously spoken : u Arise,
walk through the land, in the length of it and the breadth of
it, for I will give it unto thee ;" and partly from the desolate
appearance and poisonous vapors of the once beautiful vale of
Sodom, and in consequence of the cessation of travellers, to
whom Abraham had so delighted to show hospitality. We
shall pass lightly over the next event in the life of Sarah, having
already made our remarks on a similar occurrence. The fault
of the patriarch in again passing his wife for his sister, was
indeed much greater than it had been at the first, lie had
now no longer the excuse of not sufficiently knowing the ways
of the Lord to trust in Him, even in the midst of those dangers
incidental to mankind, yet seeming too trivial for the interference
of the Most High. He had had nearly thirty years' experience
that he was in truth the chosen servant, and the well-beloved
of tin Lord — that there was not an event in his life which had
not been ordered and guided by a special providence ; and he
ought to have known that this danger, as every other, would
be overruled. Yet, while we regret that this incomprehensible
weakness should overshadow the beautiful character of oiu

PERIOD I . SARAH. 65

ancestor, we may not condemn : for, at this distance of
time, and complete change in manners and customs, it is
impossible for us to know the temptation he may have had to
act as he did, or the extent of danger to which he was exposed.
The most truly pious, the most experienced in religion, have
often to mourn their " iniquities in holy things." The painful
struggle is always to realize faith, to trust without one doubt,
and more particularly in the smaller trials of life, which they
deem toe trivial for the notice, compassion, or interference of the
Eternal. Nor can even proofs of a superintending providence
always conquer the weakness of human nature. In this world,
the likeness of God will at times be completely hidden in the
earthly shell, however it may stand forth at others, as if naught
of clay could dull it more. And this was the case with Abra
ham, who, though the beloved of the Lord, was yet human,
and liable to all the weaknesses and frailties of hurcan nature.
We are not therefore to condemn, and so withdraw our admira
tion of his great and most consolingly beautiful character,
because in two instances he falls short of our ideas of perfection
— but rather thank God that in His Word human nature is
recorded as it {.?, simply that we may not despair. It is enough
for us, in this part of our narrative, to notice that our gracious
God demands no more of His creatures than He knows they
can perform ; that Abraham's faulty weakness in this one
instance, could not blot from the recollection of the Lord b;s
pure and simple faith in every other ; and that he permitted
all that occurred in the kingdom of Gerar to make manifest,
alike to Abraham and the nations, His continued watcli fulness
and miraculous interposition in favor of those whom He loves
— His power to protect them from all harm, and also, that
nothing was too wonderful for Him. Sarah had imagined she
was too old to enjoy the felicity of becoming a mother — too
old in any way to excite admiration, save to the beloved hus
band of her youth ; and, ignorant that her beauty had been
supernatural! v renewed, neglected to assume the veil, which was
ivorn by all Eastern women dwelling in towns. This explains
Abimelech's present of a "covering for the eyes," and the
words, " tims sh« was reproved," or warned, that her beauty
subjected her to as much danger as had been the case in her
vouth.

Miraculously protected by the Eternal, and publicly vindicated

08 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

from all dishonor by the King of Gerar, Sarah and hef
husband continued to dwell in Abimelech's dominions, some
few miles to the south of Gerar ; a place afterwards called
Beer-Shebang, or Well of the Oath, from the covenant of peace
there made between the patriarch and the king. Here it was
^iiat at the appointed time " God visited Sarah as He had said ;"
and the promised seed — the child of rejoicing — Isaac was
born. What must have been the emotions of Sarah on behold
ing him ? Not alone the bliss of a mother ; but that in
him the infant claimer of a love and jcy which she had
never so felt before, she beheld a visible and palpable manifesta
tion of the wonderful power and unchanging love of the
Most High God. Devoted, as Sarah had been, to the service
and love of the Lord, how inexpressibly must those smo-
tions have been heightened as she gazed upon her babe, and
held him to her bosom as her own, her granted child 1 To
those who really love the Lord, joy is as dear, as bright,
as close a link between the heart and its God, as grief is
to more fallen natures. We find the hymn of rejoicing, the
song of thanksgiving, always the vehicle in which the favored
servants of che Lord poured forth their grateful adoration,
*hus proving that the thought of the beneficent Giver ever
hallowed and sanctified the gift; and therefore we believe
with our ancient fathers, that though not translated metrically,
Sarah expressed her joy in a short hymn of thanksgiving. The
peculiar idiom of the Hebrew text confirms this supposi
tion,* and we adopt it as most natural to the occasion.
Her age had had no power, even before she became a mother,
to dull her feelings, and her song of thanksgiving well expresses
every emotion natural, not alone to the occasion, but to her
peculiar situation. As a young mother, full of life, of senti
ment, of affection, she felt towards her babe — giving him
his natural food from her own bosom — tending his infant
years — guiding him from boyhood to youth — from youth
to manhood, and lavishing on him the full tide of love which
had been pent up so long. The very character of Isaac, as
is afterwards displayed — meek, yielding, affectionate almost as a
woman's — disinclined to enterprise — satisfied with his heritage
— all prove the influence which his mother had possessed,

• See tnc RJ- D. A. DC Sola's translation, and note therw»»

PERIOD I. SARAH. 67

ind that his disposition was more the work of her hand than of
his father's.

" The child grew and was weaned," Holy Writ proceeds
to inform us; "and Abraham made a great feast the day
Isaac was weaned," — a feast of rejoicing that the Eternal
had mercifully preserved him through the first epoch of
his young existence. He was now three years old, if not more —
for the women of the East, even now, do not wean their children
till that age. The feast, however, which commenced in joy,
was, for the patriarch, dashed with sorrow ere it closed.
Educated with the full idea that he was his father's heir —
though the words of the angel before his birth gave no warrant
for the supposition — to Ishmael and his mother, the birth
of Isaac must have been a grievous disappointment. And we
find the son committing the same fault as his mother previously
had done— deriding, speaking disrespectfully of Sarah and her
child. The youth of Ishmael, and Sarah's request that the
bond-woman might also be expelled, would lead to the supposi
tion that it was Hagar who had instigated the affront. The age
of Sarah, and the decidedly superhuman birth of Isaac, must, to
all but the patriarch's own household, have naturally given rise
to many strange and perhaps calumniating reports. In the
common events of life all that is incomprehensible is either
ridiculed, disbelieved, or made matter of scandal ; and, there
fore, in a case so uncommon as this, it is more than proba
ble reports very discreditable both to Sarah and Abraham were
promulgated all around them. Hagar, indeed, and Ishmael
must have known differently : — that it was the hand of God
which worked, and therefore all things were possible; but
it was to Ishmael's interest to dispute or deny the legitimacy of
Isaac ; and therefore it was not in human nature to neglect the
opportunity. No other offence would have so worked on
Sarah. We are apt to think more poetically than justly
of this part of the Bible. Hagar and her young son, expelled
from their luxurious and happy home, almost perishing in
the desert from thirst, are infinitely more interesting objects
of consideration and sympathy, than the harsh and jealous
Sarah, who, for seemingly such trifling offence, demanded
and obtained such severe retribution.

We generally rest satisfied with one or two verges ; whereas,
did we look further and think deeper, our judgment would be

88 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

different. In a mere superficial reading we acknowledge Sarat
does appear in rather an unfavorable light ; as if her love foi
Isaac had suddenly narrowed and stagnated every other feeling;
and, jealous of Ishmael's influence over his father, she had
determined on seizing the first opportunity for his expulsion.
That this, however, is a wrong judgment is proved by the fact,
that the Eternal Himself desires Abraham to hearken to the
voice of Sarah in all that she shall say; for in Isaac was to be
the promised seed, though of Ishmael al<*o would He make a
nation, because he was Abraham's son. That Sarah's advice
was not to be displeasing to him, because of the lad and hia
mother.

Now, had Sarah's advice proceeded from an undue harsh
ness, a mean and jealous motive, the Most H'gh would, in His
divine justice, have taken other means for the fulfilment of His
decrees. He would not have desired His good and faithful
servant to be so guided by an evil and suspicious tongue.
There are times when we feel urged and impelled to speak that
which we are yet conscious will be productive of pain and
Buffering to ourselves. All such impulses are of God ; and it
must have been some such feeling which actuated Sarah, and
compelled her to continue her solicitation for the expulsion of
Hagar and Ishmael, even after the moment of anger was passed.
We know that Hagar had ever been her favorite slave ; it was
impossible for one affectionate as was Sarah, to have regarded
Ishmae' as her son for thirteen or fourteen years and yet not
have loved him, though of course with less intensity than his
father. The birth of Isaac naturally revealed yet stronger emo
tions ; still Ishmael could not have been so excluded from her
affections as to render her separation from him void of pain.
And still she spoke, still urged the necessity, conscious all the
time she was inflicting pain not only on her husband but on
herself. This appears like contradiction ; but each one who has
attentively studied the workings of his own heart, will not only
feel but pronounce it truth. Anger caused the demand :
" Expel this bondwoman and her son ; for the son of this bond
woman shall not inherit with my son, even with Isaac;" and
calmer reflection continued to see the necessity. Abraham's
possessions were sufficient for the heritage of both his sons ; but
as the course of nature was changed, and the younger, not the
elder, was to be the heir of promise, confusion and discorc

PERIOD I. SARAH. 69

would have ensued, and the brothers continually have been at
war. Sarah's penetration appears to have discovered this ; and
as it was necessary for Ishmael to form a separate establish
ment, it was an act of kindness, not of harshness, to let him
depart with Ilagar, instead of going forth alone. From her
own feelings she now knew the whole extent of a mother's love;
and therefore, though Ishmael had been the sole offender, and
the only one whose claims were likely to clash with Isaac's, she
would not separate the mother from the son, and so urged
Abraham to separate from both.

There is something touchingly beautiful in ;he patriarch's
love for his elder son, and yet his instant conquest of self at
the word of the Lord. His deep affection had blinded him to
the probable discomforts which might ensue from his sons
remaining together. His gentle and affectionate nature shrank
from the pang of separation, causing even displeasure against
Sarah for the first time in their long and faithful intercourse.
Yet when God spake there was neither complaint nor murmur,
nor one word of supplication that the heavy trial might be
averted from him. It was enough that the Most High had
spoken ; and though all was dark before his son, to the fond
anxious gaze of parental affection, he knew even from that
darkness God could bring forth light, and would do so, for He
had promised.

We are sometimes surprised at the small provision with
which Abraham enuowed his son at his departure. The riches
of the patriarchs consisted of land, flocks, herds, and servants ;
nothing which could easily be bestowed. Besides which,
Ishmael was to become the ancestor of a nation, through the
direct agency of the Lord, not from any provision made him by
his earthly father. Had Abraham endowed him, the interposi
tion of the Eternal would not have been so clearly and unan
swerably demonstrated. There would have been many to have
traced his riches and the princely rank of his descendants from
the gifts and power of Abraham, and denied altogether any
interposition of the Lord ; whereas, sent forth as he was, with
nothing but sufficient provision to sustain him till he reached
liis appointed resting, it was impossible even for the greatest
sceptic to trace his future prosperity and wealth to any earthly
power alone. The bread and water must not be supposed aa
weaning only what we now regard them. In the language of

0 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the Bible bread is used indiscriminately for every kind of food,
and the bottle of water signifies a skinful, such being used by
Eastern travellers even now, and containing much more than we
imagine is comprised by the term "bottle." Yet even these
were to fail, that the miraculous power and compassionate love
of the Eternal might still more startlingly be proved. It was
as easy for the Most High to have guided Ishmael and his
mother at once to their destined dwelling, as to try them as
He did in the ordeal of alike physical and mental suffering.
But He chose the latter, at once to prove His love to them, and
to give to future ages, through his unerring word, comfort in
their darkest hours ; for as He relieved Hagar, so will He them.
The God of the bondwoman is ours still ; no time, no change
can part us from Him.

The narrative of Hagar's wanderings in the wilderness, hei
maternal suffering and miraculous relief, is one of the most
beautiful and most touching amongst the many beauties of the
Bible. Hagar was not of Abraham's race, but one of a heathen
and benighted nation, a bondwoman and a wanderer, a weak
and lonely female, exiled from a home of love, overwhelmed
with anxious fears for her child, perhaps, too, with self-reproaches
for the unguarded words which she encouraged her boy to
speak, and which she regarded as the sole cause of her banish
ment ; yet was this poor sufferer the peculiar care of the great
and mighty God. He caused the clouds of densest darkness to
close around her — from them to bring forth the brightest, most
enduring light. He deigned, by His angel, to speak comfort
and hope, and even for her human wants provided the necessary
aid. He did not guard from sorrow ; for it was not until " the
water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one
of the shrubs, and she went and sat down over against him,
a good way off, for she said, Let me not see the death of the
child ; and she sat over against him, and lifted up her voice
and wept " — not till her trial was thus at its height, that the
angelic voice descended from heaven in such pitying and sym
pathizing accents: "What aileth thee, O Hagar.2 Fear not,
for God hath heard the voice of the lad whence he is. Arise,
lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand, for I will make him
a great nation." And the promise was fulfilled.

"The whole history of Hagar is fraught with the deepest com*
fort. She was one of the many in individual character ; pos

PERIOD I. SARAH. 71

alike woman's engaging and faulty characteristics:
feelincr and affectionate at one time, overbearing and insolent at
another—loving Ishmael with impetuous and clinging love,
which could not bear to see his supposed heritage become the
property of another, though she knew it was the decree of God
--reverencing and loving Abraham alike as her master and the
father of her "child, but unable always to preserve the submission
and respect due to Sarah as her mistress and indulgent friend;
for, though the mother of Abraham's child, she was still Sarah's
maid ;_J such was Hagar. Neither in character superior, nor in
station equal, to the daughters of Israel now ; yet was she the
peculiar charge of the Most High, and twice did He deign, in
closest communion, to instruct and conso'e. Her life had its
trials, in no way inferior in severity or in deep suffering to the
trials of the present day. Yet God was with her in them all ;
and, in His own appointed time, permitted them to give place
to prosperity and joy. And as He worked then, so He worketh
now. It is no proof of His dearest love, when life passes by
without a cloud — when sorrow and trial are strangers to our
path. His word reveals that those whom He loved the best,
alike male or female, endured the severest trials — that His love,
His guiding word, were not given to the children of joy. To
become His servant, His loved, His chosen, was to suffer and to
labor. We see this throughout His word ; and shall we, dare
we, expect their exemption now ? Oh ! no, no ! Would we love
the Lord, would we truly be loved by Him, would we pray for
and seek His paths, would we struggle on to the goal of immor
tal love and bliss, we must nerve both heart and frame to
bear ; strengthen and arouse every faculty to endure and suffer ;
for so did His chosen, His best beloved, and so too must we.
We have still His word to be to us as the angelic whisper was
to our ancestors. Their hope is ours, and their reward.

Few other events mark the life of Sarah. The Most High
had brought her forth from the trials, anxieties, and doubts of
previous years. He had, in His infinite mercy, fulfilled His
word, and bestowed on her the blessed gift for which, in the
midst of happiness, she had pined. Continuing His loving
kindness, He lengthened her days much beyond the usual sum
of mortality, that she might rear her child to manhood, and
receive all the blessed fruit of her maternal care in Isaac's deep
love and reverence for herself. In a mere superficial perusal

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

of the life of Sarah, as read in our Sabbath portions, we are
likely to overlook much of the consoling proofs of the Eternal's
compassionating love for His female children, which it so power
fully reveals. Sarah was ninety years of age when Isaac was
born. In the course of nature, ten or twelve years more would
either have closed her mortal career, or rendered it, from the
infirmities of so great an age, a burden to herself and all around
her. There was no need of her preservation to forward the
decrees of the Lord. In giving birth to the child of promise,
her part was fulfilled, and at the age of ten or twelve the boy
might have done without her. But God is LOVE, and the
affections of His children are, in their strength and purity,
peculiarly acceptable to Him. He never bestoweth happiness
to withdraw it ; and, therefore, to perfect the felicity of Sarah
and her child, His tenderness preserved her in life and vigor
seven and thirty years after she had given him birth. In this
simple fact we trace the beneficent and tender Father, sympa
thizing not alone in every grief and pang, but ;n every joy and
affection of His creatures. We fe^ to our heart's core the truth
of the words of Moses, " Who hath God so near to him" as
Israel ? What nation can so trace, so claim the love of the
Eternal ?

Nor was the preservation of Sarah the only proof of our
Father's loving tenderness towards her, and of His condescend
ing sympathy with the love she bore her child. The trial of
faith in the sacrifice of his son was given to i\\Q father ; but the
mother was spared the consuming agony which must have been
her portion, even had her faith continued strong. God had
compassion on the feebler, weaker nature of His female servant.
He demanded not from her that which He knew the mother
could not bear. He spared her, in His immeasurable love, the
suffering which it pleased Him to inflict upon the father, — suf
fering and temptation not to satisfy the Lord, for His omniscience
knew that His faithful servant would not fail ; but to prove to
future ^ ages the mighty power of spiritual faith and love, even
while in the mortal clay.

In the early part of his spiritual career, even Abraham's faith
would in all probability have failed. He was not supernaturally
endowed with divine grace and strength. All through his life
wo can trace his gradual advance and improvement, till hia
faith and love arrived at the climax which permitted even tho

PERIOD I. SARAH. 73

ottered and Miftiurmuring sacrifice of his dearly beloved and
now only child. Jt£ven in this we trace the guiding and foster-
inn- love of the Lord — demanding not more than He knew could
be given, and measuring the trial of faith according to the
advancing strength of His servant, each one more than the last.
13ut this consideration lias more to do with Abraham individually
and Israel at large. Uis His loving kindness manifested towards
Sarah that we, her female descendants, must take to our hearts,
thence to derive alike strength and consolation. The conviction
of the Eternal's love for us individually is necessary for woman's
happiness, and peculiarly adapted to its bestowal.

It is woman's nature to yearn and droop for love — to shrink
in agony from a lonely path — to long for some supporting arm
on which to rest her weakness ; and it is woman's doom too
often to find on earth no loving rest, and therefore is her lot so
sad. But when she can once realize that she is the subject of a
love as immeasurably superior in consolation, strength, and
changeless sympathy, to that of man, as the heaven is above the
earth : — when she can once feel she has a friend who will njver
" leave her nor forsake" — in whose pitying ear she may pour
forth trials and griefs, either petty or great, which she would
not even if she might confide to man, secure not only of pity
but of healing — when she is conscious that she is never lonely
— never left to her own weakness, but in her every need will
have strength infused — then, then is she so blessed that she is
no more lonely, no more sad ! And the word of God v-ill give
us this thrice blessed consolation, not in His gracious promises
alone, though they in themselves would be sufficient, but in His
dealings with his creatures.

As "the ancestor of His beloved, we find Sarah's death and
age particularly recorded ; being the first woman of the Bible
•whose death and burial are mentioned. The deep grief of her
husband and son are simply but touchingly betrayed in the
brief words, " And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to
weep for her ; " and, at a later period, not till his marriage with
llebekah, " and Isaac was comforted after his mother's death."
Words that portray the beauty and affection of Sarah's domestic
character, and confirm our belief that, although perhaps
possessing many of the failings of her sex, she was yet a help
meet for Abraham — a tender and judicious parent to her son
— and a kind, indulgent friend to the large household of which she

14 THE WOMEN OF TSRAEL.

was the mistress. Her noble or rather princely rank, received
as it had been direct from the Lord, is still more strongly
proved by the intercourse between Abraham and the sons of
lleth, when seeking from them a place to bury his dead :
" Hear us, my lord/' is their reply, " thou art a mighty prince
of God amongst us ; in the choicest of our sepulchres bury
thy dead ; " ai.d it was with difficulty Abraham could elude the
offered gift, and procure the cave as a purchase. His princely
rank, however, and in consequence that of his wife, we see at
once acknowledged, even by strangers, and the promise of the
Lord, expressed in changing the name of Sarai into Sarah,
clearly fulfilled.

The grief of Isaac appears to have lasted yet longer than
that of his father, and beautifully illustrates the love between
the mother and son. Abraham, advanced in years and spiritual
experience, felt less keenly the mere emotions of humanity ; he
was convinced that Sarah had only gone before him to that world
in which, from his great age. he would no doubt speedily join
her. His many duties — his close communion with the Eternal
— enabled him to rouse himself sooner from the grief, which
at first was equally severe ; but Isaac was, according to the
patriarchal reckoning of time, still a very young man, at the
age when feeling is keener, less controlled than at any other ;
and when, though spiritual comfort is great, human emotions
will have full vent. Except the three days' journey to Mount
Moriah with his father, Isaac does not appear to have been
separated a single day from his mother ; and her care, her
guiding and fostering love, had so entwined her round his
heart, that for three years after her death her son could find
no comfort. How exalted and lovely must have been that
mother's character to demand such a term of mourning from
her son ; whose youth and sex would, in some, have speedily
roused him from sorrow, or urged its forgetfulness in scenes of
pleasure !

We have little more to add on the spiritual lesson and divine
consolation which Sarah's life presents to her female descend
ants, than those hints already given. Differently situated as
we are, with regard to station, land, and customs, we may yet
imitate her faithfulness in all her household duties — her love
and reverence to her husband — her tenderness to her child —
her quiet, unpretending, domestic, yet dignified fulfilment of

PERIOD I . SARAH. *

all which she was called upon to do. We may learn from her
to set no value on personal charms, save as they may enhance
the gratification of those who love us best ; or of rank and
station, save as they demand from us yet deeper gratitude
towards God, and more extended usefulness towards man. We
may learn too from her history that it is better to wait for the
Lor(l — to leave in His hands the fulfilment of our ardent wishes
— than to seek to compass them by human means. We may
trace and feel that nothing, in truth, is too wonderful for the
Lord; that He will do what pleaseth Him, however we may
deem it hopeless and in vain. Direct revelations, as vouchsafed
t:> Sarah, indeed we have not, but God has, in His deep mercy,
granted us His word — the record of all HE HAS DONE — that
we may feel He is still OUR God ; and though He worketh now
in secret — for our sins have hid from us His ways — yet He
worketh for us still, and hath compassion and mercy and love
for each of us individually, even as He had for Sarah, and her
bondwoman Hagar. All these to us, as women, her history
reveals : as women of Israel, oh ! yet more. It is of no stranger
in race, and clime, and faith we read. It is of OUR OWN— of
one from whom Israel hath descended in a direct, unshadowed
linc — Of one— the beloved and cherished partner of that
chosen servant and beloved friend of the Eternal, for whose
sake revelation was given to mankind — Israel made not alone
the nation, but the FIRST-BORN of the Lord ; and that law
bestowed, which revealed a God of "love, long-suffering and
gracious, plenteous in mercy and truth ; " — instructed us how
to tread our earthly path, so as to give happiness to ourselves
and fellow-creatures — to be acceptable to Him ; — and pointed
with an ange1 -finger to that immortal goal, where man shall
live for ever !

Is it nothing to be the lineal descendants of one so favored
— nothing to hold in our hands and shrine in our hearts, the
record of her life from whom the race of promise sprang?
Nothing, to peruse the wonderful manifestations of the Lord's
lo;e toiler— to feel that from Him direct was Sarah's patent
of nobility, and yet possess the privilege of being her descend
wit? Will the women of Israel feel this as nothing? Will
they disdain their princely birth, their heavenly heritage \
Will they scorn to look back on Sarah as their ancestor, and
fet long for earthlv distinctions, earthly rank? No! oh, no'
4

76 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL

Let us but think of these things, of those from whom we have
descended, and our minds will become ennobled, our hearts
enlarged. We shall scorn the falso shame which would descend
to petty meannesses to hide our faith, and so exalt us in the
sight of a Gentile world. Humbled, cast off for a little
moment as we are — liable to persecution, scorn, contumely — to
be " despised and rejected " of men — to bear the burden of
affliction from all who choose to afflict — still, still we cannot
lose our blessed heritage unless we cast it off ; we cannot be
deprived of our birthright unlesL, like Esau, we exchange it foi
mere worldly pelf, and momentary (because earthly) gratifica
tion. We are still Israelites— still the chosen, the beloved, the
ARISTOCRACY of the Lord.

CHAPTER III.

K E B E K A II.

IN the same beautiful country whence, nearly seventy years
previous, the son of Terah had been called by the divine com
mand, still dwelt the children of his brother, Nahor. Contrary
to the long period of childlessness which had been the portion
of Abraham, eight sons were born unto Nahor. And when
tidings of his family again reached the patriarch, just after the
offered sacri6ce of his son, he heard that his brother was also a
grandfather — Bethuel, one of his sons having married, and
possessing sons and one fair daughter. The many wanderings
of Abraham, the distance to which he had removed, and the
almost impossibility of obtaining reciprocal intelligence, had, of
course, prevented family intercourse. Yet, by the notice taken
of Abraham's having unexpectedly received intelligence of his
kindred, and also by the momentous events recorded in the xxiv.
chapter, it is evident that both Abraham and Nahor retained a
mid recollection of, and continued affection towards each other
— an affecting illustration of the doctrine we so earnestly uoholi

PERIOD 1. REBEKAII. 77

- -that Holy Writ never fails to inculcate— alike by precept,
character, and narrative — the ascendency, necessity, and beauty
of the natural affections. Though elected to know and serve
the Lord, and to promulgate the knowledge of the true religion
throughout the world, still, no forgetful ness, no contempt of the
less favored of his father's house, actuated Abraham. In simple,
questionless obedience to his God, he had departed from all tho
haunts, the friends of his youth ; but to a disposition so strongly
affectionate as his own, often and often must the yearnings have
returned, to learn somewhat of the brother of his love. The
characters of the Bible are all human : though we are but too
apt to judge them by any and every other test than that of
humanity. Religion, instead of deadening, ever deepens and
strengthens mere human feelings. No one has ever yet truly
and devotedly loved God without feeling every natural affection
heightened and more precious. Indifference in any one single
point is utterly banished. It cannot exist with true spirituality ;
and therefore do we always find in the Bible, the strongest,
most affectionate feelings actuating the chosen servants of the
Lord.

From a careful consideration of this portion of Bible history,
and of Laban's family in the sequel, it appears probable that
Abraham had other reasons besides those of kindred for wishing
his son to choose a wife from the daughters of Mesopotamia,
instead of those of Canaan. Had the patriarch's kindred been
merely idolatrous as the other families of the earth, it is not likely
that the mere recital of the steward should have called forth
Laban and Bethuel's answering exclamation — " The thing pro
ceeded from the LORD, we cannot speak unto thee bad or good !'
— nor many years afterwards, in Laban's intercourse with his
nephew, his entreaty, " Tarry with me, for I have learned by
experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake." It
would seem from these simply recorded facts, that though they
worshipped images, which are referred to more than once in
the sequel, their religion was certainly purer than that of the
Canaanites. It was from his father's house Abraham had been
elected and called by the Almighty. His firm rejection and
abhorrence of idols, his meek and gentle un-upbraiding conduct,
his departure in simple obedience to an unknown Being,— all
this was probably remembered and so commented upon by his
kindred, that his memory had more influence than his presence ;

<8 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

and vague notions of the religion and the God whom he had
followed and preached, mingled with the image- worship which
they still retained. These notions, very possibly strengthened
by the rumors of Abraham's continued communing*, with this
mysterious God, and the many manifestations of a superhuman
agency vouchsafed to him, which, by slow degrees, reached even
Mesopotamia, prepared them to acknowledge and even believe
in Him ; though from ignorance as to the manner of worship
which could be acceptable to a Being so awful and invisible,
they adhered to the worship of their fathers.

Abraham no doubt felt that it would be easy to impart u,
the daughter of such a race, the true and spiritual religion of
which the Patriarch's own family was the only witness. There
would be no fear of her retaining and secretly promulgating the
impure and idolatrous notions which would undoubtedly have
been the case with the daughters of Canaan ; and this, acting
powerfully on the affecting recollections of kindred and home,
appears to me the real cause of Abraham's intense anxiety to
take a wife for his son Isaac from the daughters of his father's
house.

Meanwhile the daughter of Bethuel had grown into beautiful
womanhood, beloved and cherished alike by her parents and
brothers, and pursuing with cheerful content and affection the
simple routine of domestic life. There is no mention in Scrip
ture of her having ever been sought in marriage before the ofter
of Isaac. We are rather to suppose, that she was scarcely seen
or known beyond the precincts of her father's establishment ;
and as this was the case also with the daughters of Laban,
some years afterwards, the supposition of their superiority to the
other heathen nations is confirmed.

The daily employments of the young females of the East
appear to have been completely domestic ; and in obedience to
these daily duties we find Rebekah one evening going as usual
to the well with her pitcher on her shoulder to draw water.
The group of strangers beside the well must have struck her as
something remarkable, but we do not find that she in any
way loitered or wavered in the steady performance of her task.

" And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin : and
ihe went down to the well, and filled her pitcher and came up.
A.nd the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee,
drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, mv

PERIOD I. REBEKAH Y9

'ord : and she let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave
him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she
said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have
done drinking. And she hasted and emptied her pitcher into
the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and
drew for all his camels/'

Among the many little exquisite touches of artless and gentle
nature with which the Bible abounds, none surpass this for
truth and beauty. The same unsophisticated nature that led
her quietly to pursue her duty, without turning to the right
hand or to the left, also prompted the active and cordial kind
ness to the stranger when he addressed her, and the respectful
deference to his age and sex which the words " Drink, my lord,"
imply. It was the quiet self-possession, the modest ease and
frankness, the total disregard of self, alike with regard to per-
jonal trouble as to the impression her own beautiful face and
form might make, which ever proceed from a proper self-esteem,
without which no woman, however situated, can happily or with
propriety pass through life. She not only gave refreshment to
the steward, but filled the trough for the weary camels to drink
also. Many times must she have ascended and descended to
the well, burdened with a weighty pitcher — a fair and gentle
girl, while so many strong men were standing round — but
they were strangers and travellers, and she was in her own
land.

Well might Eliezer, " wondering at her, hold his peace, to
wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not."
It was difficult to believe that the prayer he had scarcely con
cluded before Rebekah appeared, should so speedily be answered ;
and it was, no doubt, with some little trembling he asked,
" Whose daughter art thou ? Tell me, I pray thee, is there
room in thy fatner's house for us to lodge in ?" and how must
his heart have bounded with returning confidence at the artless
reply : " I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, which
she bare unto Nahor. "She said moreover unto him, We have
both straw and provender enough, and room to lodge in." Our
ancient fathers, with much justice, suppose that the splendid
presents of the steward followed this announcement, and were
not given, as we might imagine from the general translations
of the Bible, before he knew her name. They had been
intrusted to him for the bride of Isaac ; and therefore, it was

80 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

not likely he should bestow them on any one, however beautiful
and hospitable, unless perfectly convinced that she was the
maiden destined so to be. The little conversation between
them, and even the steward's fervent ejaculation of thanksgiv
ing, probably took place while the camels were drinking ; and
it was when they had done, "that the man took a golden
earring of half a shekel weight, and the bracelets for her hands
of ten shekels weight of gold." Greatly must the maiden have
marvelled, not only at the richness of the presents, but that
they should be offered at all ; and, true to the almost childish
nature which the whole narration displays, " she ran and told
them of her mother's house these things."

It is by some commentators considered strange, I believe, that
in all which follows, Laban, not Bethuel, should be the principal
actor. The Bible appears to tell us, that Laban was decidedly
the head of his father's house ; and, as there is no mention what
ever of Rebekah's father, no reference to any relation but her
mother and brother, it does not seem probable that she had a
father living, the Bethuel who is mentioned being possibly a
younger brother, and one of very inferior consequence.

We have already perceived that Rebekah " told them of her
mother's house." And now, without any notice whatever of a
father, we read, that " Kebekah had a brother whose name was
Laban." And when he saw the earring and bracelets on his
sister's hands, and when he heard her words, he came unto the
man who still stood with his camels beside the well, and accosted
him, net only as one who was master, with independent author
ity, buv< with an exclamation which confirms our previous
suggestion, that some vague notions of Abraham's God had
reached even Mesopotamia. The hurried narration of his sister
would not have been s ifficient incentive for such greeting ; —
" Come in, thou BLESSED OF THE LORD ; wherefore standest thou
without? for I have prepared the house, and room for the
camels. And the man came into the house, and he ungirded
his camels. And they gave straw and provender for the camels,
and water to wash his feet, and the men's feet who were with
him. And they set meat before him to eat : but he said, I will
not eat till I have said mine errand. And he (Laban) said,
Speak on."

Laban, as the generous, unsuspicious host, had performed his
part. And now, the servant of Abraham failed not to perform

PERIOD I. RBBEKAH. 81

his. Earnest in his master's cause, his mission occupying alike
heart and inind, — convinced that he was in the Lord's hands,
he would not wait till hunger was appeased and weariness sub
dued, but at once spoke; his first words refusing all honor to
himself by the simple declaration ^p:x Drnsa "DS, " Servant
of Abraham am I." It was, indeed, a wondrous tale to which
the family of Bethuel listened. By the words of Laban, at its
inclusion, " Behold, Rebekah is before thee," we may infer,
that the maiden and her mother were both present; though, by
no word or exclamation did the former interrupt a narrative
which concerned her so deeply ; yet as a woman, and a very
young one, how many feelings must have stirred within her, as
the steward spoke !

Eliezer told how his venerable master had grown rich and
great by the blessing of the Lord, who had also granted him,
in his old age, a son, to whom Abraham had given all that he .
had : — how anxious he was to guard his son from a connexion
with the Canaanites, and to take him a wife from his own
kindred; overruling Eliezer's objection — " Peradventure, the
woman will not follow me," — by the solemn assurance that
" the Lord, before whom I walk, will send His angel before
thee, and prosper thy way ;" — how, in obedience, he had set
forth, and, arriving that day at the well, had prayed to the Lord
God of his master Abraham, to grant that the virgin who, when
he wished for a little water from her pitcher, should reply,
u Drink thou, and I will draw for the camels also," should be
the maiden whom the Lord had appointed for his master's
son ; — how his prayer had been heard and answered, by the
appearance and kindly courtesy of Rebekah ; — and he con
cluded, "I bowed down my head, and worshipped the Lord
God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the right way,
to take my master's brother's daughter for his son. And now,
if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me ; and
if not, tell me ; that I may turn to the right hand, or the left."

Deeply indeed must the simple tale have affected its hearers.
The rich, the princely Abraham had remembered and yearned
towards his father's house ; even those who, perchance, in his
youth had reviled and persecuted him for his rejection of their
idols ; seeking from them, in preference to every other, a wife
for his son. " The thing proceedeth from the Lord," was their
instant answer. " We cannot speak unto thee bad or good

82 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Behold, Rebekah is before thee, take her, and go, and let bei
be thy master's son's wife, as the LORD hath spoken."

Blessed thus far, the richest jewels of gold and silver were
presented by the steward to the youthful bride, her mother and
brother. Surely, if her father had still been living, he would
here have been mentioned : but neither here, nor in the 55th
and 60th verses following, which are important as relating to
her influential kindred, is there any notice taken of his
existence.

One night only, the steward accepted the lavish hospitality
of his hosts. Anxious to report the success of his mission, he
entreated, " Send me away to my master." But natural ties
could not be so quickly severed without pain. How could they
so suddenly part with the cherished darling of their house — in
all probability never to look upon her again ? " Let the damsel
abide with us a few days," her mother and brother said ; " at
least ten, after that she shall go." But the steward entreated
them to " hinder him not," believing that to loiter, would be
" displeasing to the Lord who had prospered his way." And
they said, " We will call the damsel, and inquire at her mouth. '
Young and retiring as she was, her own voice was to decide the
matter. They would neither retain nor send her away without
her own consent ; thus proving that even family authority, in
the Bible, was an authority of love. " And calling her, they
said, Wilt thou go with this man ? And she said, I will go ;"
— a brief and simple answer, yet suited alike to her character
and the occasion. No doubt, there will be some to exclaim
against the reply as abrupt and unmaidenly ; but have they
quite considered all the circumstances of the case ? Rebekah's
character, at this period of her life, was a beautiful blending of
simplicity and truth. Sought by Abraham for his son, of
whom, in all probability, she had already favorably heard ;
selected by God himself, every natural feeling of woman was
satisfied and soothed. Perhaps, now, in this period of ultra
refinement, such simplicity will scarcely be understood. Yet,
then, her meek assent was in perfect accordance with all that
had passed before. Is it not ordained, even by God himself —
that woman, even as man, should leave father, mother, and
home, to cleave unto her husband ? Besides, this was nc
engagement of mere human devising. She was, unconsciously,
the instrument in the Eternal's hand to farther His decrees.

PERIOD I. REBEKAH. 83

And her brief assent was his inspiration, as certainly as all the
previous incidents. Nor can we doubt for a moment, even
while she declared her willingness to go, that natural affections
were busy within her. Have not our readers themselves felt, at
times, two completely opposing feelings filling their hearts at
once ? And oh ! how blessed would it be at such times, if we
could but realize that the words, fraught with a pain and
anxiety unknown, unthought of, when we spoke them, proceed
alone, as Rebekah's " I will go," from the guidance of the Lord,
and that therefore, spite of all the sufferings which may gather
round us, they will in the end be blessed.

Rebekah had accepted the presents of betrothal, and was
therefore already of the family of Abraham. How then might
his steward go without her ? It was not her part to detain him
on his way. We may imagine the tears of affection with
which the fond blessing was pronounced by her bi others. The
mother, though still present, is not mentioned ; for her prayers
were in her heart. " And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto
her, Thou art our sister ; be thou the mother of thousands of
millions, and let thy seed possess the gates of those which hate
them." And Rebekah arose (probably from the detaining arms
of her kindred), and with her nurse, and attendant damsels,
sought their camels, and accompanied the steward on his home
ward way.

How many thoughts must have crowded the heart and mind
of the young daughter of Bethuel during this journey — the home
she had left, and'the home she was about to seek — the friends
of her childhood, and those unknown ; yet towards whom she
turned with the yearning to love and be beloved : probably
hearing fora the lips of the steward so much of his young
master, as to render him in her mind no longer a stranger.

Simply and beautifully is the last touch to this portion of her
history given by the inspired historian. Canaan was reached ;
the tents of the patriarch in sight. And lifting up her eyes,
Rebekah beheld a man walking forth in the fertile fields ; bear
ing in his pensive mind and measured tread, the aspect of one
in holy meditation. It was eventide, that still solemn hour of
holy musing, sought only by those who have no thought from
which to shrink, who can call up sweet dreamy visions of the
past — sad, yet how inexpressibly soothing. That holy hour,
when the soul of the deuarted comes back to the spirit of tho

34 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

bereaved, holding such commune as must proclaim our union
with the invisible world, and confirm our immortality. Tha
maiden probably guessed who it was on whom she gazed. But
when the question was asked and answered by her guiue, modesty,
refinement, simplicity, and that respect which ever springs from
the heart, all impelled her to " light off her camel," and " to take
a veil and cover herself."

This was true humility, for she knew her own dignity. She
demanded no more respect than she paid herself. °She waited
no ceremonious introduction, but alighting from the camel, com
pletely shrouded in her veil, she proved by the one action, the
respect due to the son of Abraham, her destined husband, and by
the other retained her own gentle dignity, by concealing every
charm, till the servant's tale was told, and Isaac claimed her as
his bride. Personal beauty was in this case as nothing, though
she possessed it in no ordinary degree. Her conduct proceeded
from an artless, unsophisticated nature, timidly shrinking from
the eyes of him whom she most wished to please— a desire to
conceal the very beauty which she must have yet ardently hoped
that he might prize ; and her hope was fulfilled, for " Isaac
brought her into his mother Sarah's tent, and he took Rebekah,
and she became his wife, and he loved her, and Isaac was com
forted after his mother's death." Uow beautifully do those few
words illustrate the extent of his love both towards his mother
and wife ! Though three years had passed since the death of his
mother, he yet mourned for her. Not even the affections of his
father could satisfy that painful yearning ; — not even religion,
with hei host of soothing thoughts and blessed images, could
wholly comfort him, though she gave him strength to endure,
and spiritual love to bless the hand which smote. Nor is this
a contradictory assertion. Religion leads us to Him who alone
can heal, in deep and most fervid prayer ; — that prayer brings
us, from Him whose deep mercy hears and answers, support and
consolation, by the conviction that we are not lonely — that we
shall meet again those whom we love in His presence, who k
love itself; and this is comfort. The comfort here alluded to
was for the yearnings of the mortal ; the immortal could realize
consolation, the mortal could not. Though it be in very truth
the invisible soul we love, yet we become so knit with the mortal
habitation of that soul, that we cannot feei it has perished from
our sight for ever, without an agony of heart that time an;1

PERIOD I. REBEKAH. 86

prayer, and constant communings with the invisible Spirit alone,
can in any way assuage. Nor is there one portion in the Holy
Bible which would tell us that God condemns such grief,
with the whole fervor of our immortal being, we can bow in
much submission, faith, and love, unto His will, He condemns not,
nay, feels compassionate, and in His own good time heals the
agony which our human nature feels through the human agency
of wife, or friend, or child. And so it was with Isaac. Wedded
as he was to the memory of his mother, no ordinary woman
could have so gained his love as to give him comfort, and nil up
the achincr void which had existed three long years. He must
have seen in Rebekah when she first became his wife, a reflection
of Sarah's endearing qualities ; and united as these were to youth
and beauty, inspired still deeper and dearer emotions than he had
ever experienced before.

To some dispositions, this sudden elevation in a social am
domestic position would have been a dangerous ordeal ; but
neither presumption, arrogance, nor pride, appears to have marked
the conduct of Rebekah. The same steady performance ot
household duty manifested in her girlhood, probably continued
in her higher and more responsible station ; and year after year
found her calmly following the quiet routine of daily duty
happily to herself and to her household. And here, for a briet
while we would pause to gather the sweet blossoms of instruc
tion and guidance proffered by a Father's love, which Rebekah s
history, thus far considered, can impart. We would linger a
moment on the past ere we go forward, for the picture must be
changed. Yet it is no marvellous or incomprehensible change-
it is no history of woman in an era so long past that we wonder,
and scarce believe— the picture is too perfect even now ;— it is
woman then, and woman now, as we shall see hereafter.

Although from the wide distinction between patriarchal and
modern times, our position and duties as daughters of Israel
can never resemble those of Rebecca, we have, like her, domestic
duties to perform, and a station not only to fulfil but to adorn,
BO as to excite towards us respect and love. The women ot the
Bible are forcibly portrayed, not for us to follow them exactly,
fcr that we could nut do, but from their conduct m their
respective spheres to guide us in ours ; from the approval or
reproof bestowed directly or indirectly upon them, to teach their
descendants what is acceptable in the sight of our heavenly

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Father and what is not ; and of this we may rest assured there
is no contradiction to puzzle us in the Word of God. The pre
cepts of His law are proved by the practice of His servants.
" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might,"
was said centuries after by the sage monarch, who, in obcdfence
to the command of God relating to Kings, must have been
acquainted with the whole of His law ; and that precept was
exemplified in Rebecca's conduct at the well. She had every
temptation to turn aside a few moments in her simple task.
Had she ever accustomed herself to encourage wandering
thoughts in her different employents, to turn from them for
every frivolous pretence, she would never have withstood the
temptation of idling away her time with the goodly looking
strangers, and thus demonstrated a character totally unfit to be
the ancestress of God's chosen race. But as she went down to
the well and filled her pitcher, and came up, " neither turnino-
to the right nor to the left," so it behoves us to follow our daily
duties, would we, like her, receive the blessing of the Lord. It
is said to be woman's nature ever to be unsteady— to be caught
by the glare of every new object, every new face— to become
frivolous from allowing herself in youth to flutter from one
employment to another, seeking but sweets, and terrified at the
first sight of all that may seem more harsh or stern. But such
frivolity is incompatible with the regenerate and spiritual woman
whose guidance is her Bible, whose sustainer is her God. She
feels too deeply responsible to Him for every hour of her time
to squander its smallest portion needlessly away. She seeks' to
lo'*e Him too earnestly, too continually, not to associate the
hope of His approval with her every employment, and so asso
ciated it is impossible for them to be frivolously followed or
lightly interrupted ; and if domestic duties were thus performed
by the young daughter of a house who knew not by direct reve
lation the Lord, how much more devolves upon us her descend
ants, to whom the Lord himself has vouchsafed, through His
holy Word, both guidance and example ! O ! let us then) in our
every pursuit, first ponder well if we may lay it before our God
and upon it ask His blessing ; and if we truly can, let us pursue
it with all our heart, and soul, and might, if we would indeed
seek the loving tenderness of our God, the respect of the world
and of ourselves.

Nor is her steadiness the only portion of Rebecca's earh

PERIOD I. R E B E K A II . 8?

character demanding our admiration. The winning ana obliging
gentleness with which she met the stranger's address proceeded
from the genuine kindness, the real politeness of an utterly
unselfish heart. The request was not only granted, but granted
with such sweetness of manner and respectful words as threefold
to enhance the kindness of the deed. The beautiful laws con
tained in the 32d, 33d, and 34th verses of the 19th chapter of
Leviticus had not then been issued, yet the conduct of Rebecca
was a practical illustration of the spirit which they teach. She
paid respect to age, and did unto the stranger even as if he had
been one born in the land ; and this we may all do. It is not
enough that we act kindly, and mean kindly, in our intercourse
either with friends or strangers. We must make manifest kindly
feeling by a kindly and conciliating manner. At a period when
the drift of education sometimes appears to condemn, conquer,
and entirely annihilate feeling, this will be difficult, for widely
different is the manner which is taught, however perfect may be
its propriety, its gentleness, its suavity, to that which springs
from the heart, and has its origin in overflowing and unselfish
feeling. But has the heart — has feeling anything to do with
our behavior to a perfect stranger, and acquaintance of the hour,
whom in the whole course of our life we may never meet again ?
It has, and it may be productive of good, both to ourselves and
others. The great, the good, the mighty and most merciful
Creator of heaven and earth disdained not, even in the midst of
this stupendous creation, to bid the earth bring forth her flowers,
not to serve as food, or shelter, or absolute use in the cotnmon
meaning of the word, but simply to beautify, to enliven, to
rejoice, to fling a gladness and a sunshine on the desert waste
and weary wilderness, and add beauty and rejoicing even where
all around is joy; and as flowers to the earth, so is kindliness
to man. It will not remove grief, nor give him what perchance
he needs, but it may cause a flower to spring up in the lonely
recess or careworn furrow of his heart, whose memory may
linger long after the flower itself has perished. And shall we
scorn the power that will do this? Shall we think a flower of
half an hour's growth too worthless to be given, too trifling to
be gathered ? Oh ! let us not encourage such a thought. We
may know, indeed, nothing of the stranger with whom, for a
orief hour, we may be thrown ; but that very ignorance should
•jrge us to courtesy and kindliness. His course may have been

88 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

one of care, his present lot a waste, and a gentle tone and kind
manner may be to him as the flower in the desert wiling him a
brief while from his own sad thoughts. Or it may be his lot
has been and is all joy ; and yet will kindliness be sweet, even
as the flower in the festive hall, or in the pathway of the bride ;
its form scarce noticed at tha time, yet so blending with its
associated images as in memory to be called up again and yet
again. We are not placed here to live for curselves alone, and
more powerfully than aught else, if it spring from the heart,
and has its birth in feeling, will a kind and gentle manner rivet
the links of brotherhood, bid us feel we are all children of our
common Father, and so strengthen our love in Him, and for
each other.

On us more especially, aliens and exiles from our own land, is
manner, as the mirror of the heart, incumbent. There was a
time, but lately passed away, when to perform this duty was
impossible, and therefore supposed to be unnecessary. When
scorned, persecuted, condemned as the very scum of the earth,
hat^d and reproached, it was as utterly impossible for us to
manifest courtesy and kindness, as to receive them. Hatred
begets hatred, as scorn begets scorn, more especially when
neither emotion may be avowed. What did the cringing man
ner, the abject tone of the persecuted, tortured Jew conceal ?
Was it marvel it should be hatred as strong, if not stronger,
because utterly powerless, than that of his cruel, his tyrannical
oppressor? But now that in some enlightened and blessed
realms these fearful times are past, and the right hand of
fellowship extended to us, shall the exile and oppressed refuse
to meet in amity and confidence, the sons of the land which
gives them protection and home? We were commanded to
show kindness to a stranger, as to one born amongst us. That
blessed privilege is no longer ours, for we are strangers in a
strange land ; yet may we still obey the spirit of the law, and
in the cultivation of a kindly heart, and manifestation of a
kindly feeling, let us remember we have not only an individual,
but a national character to support — that a brief half hour's
intercourse with a stranger is endowed with power to exalt or
to lower the cause of Israel ; and as Rebekah's kindly cordi
ality was blessed to her, by making her the wife of Isaac, and
so revealing to her the glorious tidings of a God of love, so may
the kindly manner of the youngest daughter of Israel be blet^ed

PERIOD I. EEBEKAH. 89

to her, by making her the unconscious instrument, in God's
hand, to exalt His holy faith, and proclaim His truth in the
heart and mind of the Gentiles amongst whom she dwells.

Yet, Rebekah's courtesy to the steward demonstrates neither
presumption nor forwardness incompatible with her age or sex.
We find her, directly her brother Laban comes forth, retiring to
her own modest station in her mother's tent, and claiming no
farther notice. We see, therefore, that to act kindly demands
not the forsaking our natural sphere. We are not to look
abroad for opportunities to act as Kebekah did ; but, like her,
we shall find them without leaving our home, in the domestic
and social intercourse of daily life. Let us ponder well upon
these things, and, as daughters of Israel, make it our glory and
our pride to do our simplest duty " with all our might ;" our
pleasure, to scatter flowers on the path of all with whom we
may be thrown ; arid dwelling with meek and loving content
ment in our appointed sphere, remember that the cause of Israel
is our own, and it is in our power to exalt or degrade it.

For twenty years, the lives of Rebekah and Isaac appear to
have passed in all the quiet felicity of domestic love and peace.
Abraham was still living, happy in the happiness of his son
Isaac ; for to his other sons " Abraham gave gifts, and sent
them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward unto
the east country." lie gave them, in all probability, a know
ledge of the Lord enough to recognise and worship him; but in
Isaac, Abraham knew was the promised seed, and therefore by
him was the a^ed patriarch's home. Anxiously he, too, must
have anticipated the birth that would prolong his line, but from
his personal experience in "waiting for the Lord," his feelings
must have been less anxious than those of Isaac. In these
twenty years, we hear of no temporal disturbance nor divine
interference, as in the earlier life of Abraham ; but that spiritual
communing with the Lord, and improvement in knowledge of
and faith in Him, in no ways slackened or diminished, we are
called upon to believe by the simple fact of Isaac going to
** entreat the Lord for his wife," and the instant answer to hia
Drayer. Again we see divine interference, not what is called
natural causes, operating fur the fulfilment of the Eternal's
promise of a chosen seed. Jacob, the father of the twelve
tribes, from one or other of whom the wandering Hebrew can
utill trace descent and claim the promises vouchsafed unto his

80 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

fathers — Jacob, even as Isaac, was the child, not alonu of
promise, but of PRAYER.

Those twenty years saw Rebekah as we last beheld her, only
matured in the graces of womanhood, and so grafted on the
house of Abraham, as like him to worship and know the greal
God alone. She had had, as yet, no temptation to swerve aside
from the straight path of duty. A beloved and cherished wife,
daughter, and mistress, her life passed by so smoothly, her affec
tion so devoted to one first object, and thence calmly emanating
on all under her influence, that she was, as every other woman
in a similar position must have been, still entirely ignorant of
the shoals and quicksands in her heart, which might lead to sin,
and end in sorrow.

Yet her first action, after proof was given jf the Eternal's
gracious answer to her husband's prayer, was one of such child
like simple confidence in the power and wisdom of the Lord to
answer all of doubt and fear, that to reconcile her conduct after
wards becomes more difficult. Unusual and incomprehensible
suffering so oppressed her as to ra,ise a doubt of the pro
mise being then about to be fulfilled. " If it be so," she
thought, " why am I thus ?" — and without pause or hesitation,
went directly " to inquire of the Lord." She asked no advice,
demanded no human aid — but in heartfelt prayer — for in
prayer only could she so inquire — laid before Him her every
emotion, and from him implored reply. We would humbly ask
those, if indeed there can be such, who deny to woman an
immortal soul, refuse her the blessed privilege of individual and
secret commune with her Creator, and believe man's prayer
alone omnipotent, how they would interpret this very simple
narration ? They may assert, as I believe some commentators
do, that it was through Abraham she inquired of the Lord, and
received reply — but, as we have no warrant whatever in Scrip
ture, by direct word or implied inference, to confirm this asser
tion, we must reject it altogether. The long years which
Rebekah had passed in the household of Abraham, had not
flown by unused and spiritually unimproved. She had seen the
Great and Invisible Being acknowledged and adored. She had
been taught by example ; and we may be scripturally certain,
though the fact itself is not mentioned, by precept also. The
natural impulse of humanity, under all difficulties and suffering,
is to pray — and in the beautiful simplicity of the patriarchal

TERIOD I. — REBEKAH 91

flges, no artificial coldness, no appalling scepticism, no disheart
ening doubt, could have crowded round her, whispering that the
prayer was vain, that the Creator of heaven and earth was
a Being too far removed from woman's petty griefs to listen and
give reply In the simple trusting confidence of a child, she
sought tha Parent whose love was omnipotent not only t<?
understand the doubt and pain, but to give relief, and her confi
dence was answered. How that gracious answer was vouch
safed, whether through Abraham, or directly to herself, is
I believe, an argument — but Scripture bias us believe, withoul
hesitation, the latter — "And the Lord said unto her? cleai
simple words, banishing at once all necessity for mediation
either of man or angel ; words almost impossible, even wilfully
to be misunderstood. The lioio she received this answer, whe
ther through the medium of the ear, or by an impression on the
mind — can be of very little consequence ; and is one of those
cavilling inquiries which we could wish banished, ere formed
into words; tending as they do to till up the mind with vain
and idle speculations, instead of the pure simple truths of Scrip
ture. It is enough, and a most blessed enough for us, that the
" Lord said unto her," the direct answer to her inquiring
prayer. The words were mysterious — that she was already the
mother of two opposing nations, one of whom should be stronger
than the other — and the elder should serve the younger." Yet,
mysterious as they must have been, they came from the Lord,
lie had graciously vouchsafed to explain the cause of her
unusual sufferings, and Rebekah was satisfied ; for we find
not another word from her of either wonderment or complaint.

And oh \ what a blessed incentive have we from this simple
narrative, in aL our griefs and sufferings, bodily or mental,
to inquire of the Lord — to come to Him as our ancestress,
in guileless faith and simple-minded prayer. lie is our God as
He was hers — yea, ours — exiles, wanderers, WOMEN as we are,
and who, with the holy word of God within his hand, shall dare
to refuse to us, as women, as Israelitish women, the power, tha
purity, the privilege of prayer ? Who shall dare assert that we
are powerless to pray, or need the mediation of man, to bear up
our petitions to the throne of grace ? Mothers, wives, daughters
of Israel, you alone must prove the utter falsity of this charge !
Before the law, under the law, during the captivity, wo

02 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

still find the Hebrew woman seeking her God in prayer
and receiving from him direct reply. Oh ! shall we not thus prove
that we have a soul immortal as that of man — that the very
breath of our being, the light of our path, the support of
strength, is prayer — that prayer which brings us daily, nay
hourly, in commune with a loving Father, whose Under sympa
thy is endless as His love. Let us prove we need not Chris
tianity either to teach, or direct us how to pray — but, turning
to the blessed pages of our own Bible, make manifest that
to look further is not needed. That there we have indeed suffi
cient for encouragement and hope; for confidence and faith.
As Rebekah prayed, so too may we ; and as our Father
answered her, so will He us. Not indeed with word direct, but
with that blessed calm, and hope, and faith, which prayer
only can bestow; and with that heavenly patience which
will enable us to "wait for the Lord," in the firm belief
that whatever He may will is best. It is worthy of remark that
Rebekah is the first recorded instance of woman's immediate
appeal to God, and the condescending reply.

At the appointed time Isaac and Rebekah became parents
of twin sons, who grew and flourished ; and in early youth dis
played a contrariety of disposition arid pursuits which must have
appeared strange, in such nearly allied relations, had it not been
rendered clearly intelligible, at least to their mother by the
previous words of the Lord. But yet these words do not
appear to me sufficient for Rebekah always to have regarded
Jacob as the promised seed. The promise, or rather explana
tion, given in answer to her prayer, was simply, "the one
people shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve
the younger ;" not as was the case with Abraham, when the
promised sesd was specifically named. And in the very next
revelation which was vouchsafed to Isaac, a few years afterwards,
we read, " Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will
bless thee ; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, will I give all
these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto
Abraham thy father. And I will make thy seed to multiply as
the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all the coun
tries ; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be
blessed ;" and again, the last verse of this same xxvii. chapter —
the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, " I

PERIOD I. REBEKAH. 93

am the God of Abraham, thy father ; fear not, for I am
with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my ser
vant Abraham's sake."

The Eternal expressly says '' thy seed." Isaac might be jus
tified in supposing that both his sons were concerned in the pro
mises, until Esau's reckless disregard of his birthright, and
other spiritual blessings, in addition to his intermarrying with
the daughters of Canaan, must have convinced his father
that not from him could spring the chosen seed. The revelation
that " the elder should serve the younger," must have occasioned
Rebekah many mental inquiries ; but even if she herse. f
supposed that Jacob was the destined inheritor of Abraham's
line, it is evident that she did not impart it to her husband.

Isaac's love for the reckless and able hunter, Esau, is one of
those contradictions of the heart, unaccountable indeed, but
very often found, lie loved Esau best, because in every respect
ne was completely his opposite. Isaac was meek, affectionate,
faithful, quietly and contentedly dwelling in one spot, moving
thence ouly at the command of the Lord: satisfied with the
temporal blessings around him, and the spiritual blessings of
promise. Esau, bold, enterprising, ever roving in search of
active pursuit ; heeding naught but the present ; scorning his
home and home ties ; rude and rough, yet, when excited,
deeply and warmly affectionate to his aged father. And Isaac
loved him better than his younger son, who, more like himself,
" was a plain or upright man dwelling in tents." But Rebekah
loved Jacob. Sacred history does not say why — and we are
therefore permitted to infer, that it was simply because it is in
womai 's nature to love him best who is least loved by his
father. But Rebekah's favoritism, as we shall see in the sequel,
was stronger and more culpable than that of Isaac. All such
emotions are stronger in woman's heart than in man's — because,
with the former, feeling is the most powerful, and with the
latter, reason. Partiality must always occasion injustice, and
more particularly in a parent ; for no task demands more con
trol and feeling, more complete conquest of self, than that of
parental affection. The dispositions, the characters of the
divers members of one family are so varied, that it is impossible
to guide all by one and the same training. An impartial mother
will know every light and shadow of every disposition, and
guide and act accordingly. A partial mother sees but the

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

virtues and qualities of one, and from want of sympathy and
proper management of the other in early years, makes him in
reality all that^she believed him. Jacob was domestic, because
a mother's doting love made his home one of enjoyment, and
administered to every want.

It was not till after Sarah's death that Isaac even sought a
wife, and not till he was parted from his mother that Jacob
loved, proofs all convincing of the strength, the beauty, the
fulness of the love which in those simple ages united the mother
and the son.

To Esau this soothing and blessed love was not given as it
was to Jacob ; and while his hasty and inconsiderate marriage
with the daughters of the Hittite was a grief of mind to Isaac
and Kebekah, the latter's neglect might have been in part theL-
cause. Esau had no kindly woman's heart to turn to, as had
his brother, yet we have proof that his affections were as strong
—perchance, from his ruder character, yet stronger — and the
very want of female love at home might have first urged him to
seek it from the stranger. Oh ! it is sad when partiality and its
concomitant, injustice, obtains entrance into a mother's heart.
It steals in so silently, so disguisedly, that unless every avenue
be guarded, its advances are utterly unknown, till it has gained
a strength and substance which hold us chained. Mere human
love, omnipotent as in a mother's breast it is, is not sufficient to
guard us from such weakness — no, nor former strength and
stability of character. Rebekah had all this, and yet as a mother
she fell. It can only be that close communion w'ith the univer
sal Father, who alone knows and feels every secret throbbing
of a mother's heart, and from whose hand alone can come the
strength, not only to guide aright her treasures, but to feel
aright herself.

During the growth of his sons, Isaac's temporal riches very
greatly increased. Abraham's death did not take place till his
grandsons _were fifteen. He who had believed it next to
impossible in his old age to have a son, lived not only to \ less
his son, but his son's seed. A famine had sent Isaac and his
family, by direction of the Eternal, to Gerar. and there he dwelt
until he became so rich and great that the "• Philistines envied
him ;" and their king, Abimelech, said unto him, "Depart from
us, for thou art much mightier than we." And he did so, and
after some wanderings, fixed his tent at Beorsheba ; and there

PEKIOD I. BEBEKAH. 93

again the Lord appeared unto him, bidding him " fear not, for
He was with him." Beersheba, therefore, appears to have been
the scene of all the domestic events which followed — Esau
soiling his unvalued birthright — his subsequent marriage — the
vexatfons thence proceeding to Isaac and Rebekah — and those
Dodily infirmities of the former, which occasioned his anxious
desire to " bless his son oefore he died."

Rebekah heard the words of her husband. She had seen
him call his firstborn to his couch, and bid him seek venison,
and bring the savory meat that he loved, that his soul might
bless him before he died ; and her heart swelled tremblingly
within her. Esau ? Was Esau to have his father's blessing ?
He who had sold his birthright, and so spurned his privileges
as heir ; and if he had it, how could the Lord's word be fulfilled,
and the " elder serve the younger ?" Why could she not pre
vent it, and secure to him whom the Lord before his birth had
chosen as the mightiest, the blessing of his father ? It was
easy to be accomplished ; and surely, as the Lord had said it,
she was justified in using any means to bring it to pass. Such
was weak, finite reasoning — such the baneful whisper of our
earthly nature, urged on by the rushing torrent of human affec
tions. In that dread moment of temptation, how might she
realize the unquestioning faith which would bid her feel, " The
Lord hath spoken, and will he not do it?" That His will
needed no human aid for its fulfilment ; that He would do His
pleasure in the very face of those contradictory events, which
human will and finite wisdom might so weave as to render its
fulfilment seemingly impossible. If Rebekah had but " inquired
of the Lord" in this perplexity, as on a former one, the whole
train of deceit and its subsequent suffering would have been
averted. But she was still a woman, weak, wavering, a very
reed in her mortal nature, and liable, as every child of Adam,
to temptation and to sin.

Had she even waited but one brief hour, all would have been
well — the evil impulse would have been conquered in her pious
heart, by a train of thought as above, but there was no time
either to wait or think again ; and, acting on the impulse, she
called Jacob, and after informing him of his father's directions to
his brother, continued in a strain that would lead us to believe,
that even at that moment she feared Jacob's upright nature
would shrink from the task she imposed " Now, therefore, my

96 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

SOT;, OBEY my voice, according to that which I command thee.f
She claimed his unquestioning obedience, ere imparting that
which she desired, and then proceeded. Surely her heart must
have reproached her, when her own son ventured to suggest,
though guardedly and respectfully, that it was a fraud, "and
might bring upon him a curse instead of a blessing. Yet still she
enforces the command, " Upon me be the curse, my son, only
ooey my voice." And he did obey her, weakly and mistakenly ;
for had he resisted, had he submissively, yet firmly braved her
momentary wrath, the evil temptation must have been subdued
and the mother saved by the unscrupulous honesty of the son.

But this was not to be. To make manifest His ways, that
suffering must attend deceit, however for the moment it may
seern to succeed, the Eternal permitted the plans of finite form
ing uninterruptedly to proceed, working out indeed His will
through them, but punishing even in success. The kid was
procured and dressed — the very hands and neck of Jacob dis
guised, lest their smoothness should betray him ; and thus
attired by a mother to deceive, he approached the bed-side of
his blind father. How fearfully must the heart of Rebekah have
throbbed at every word uttered by her husband and son ! How
terrified at the words of the unsuspecting, yet half doubting
Isaac ! " Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son,
whether thou be my very son Esau or not." And Jacob went
near unto Isaac his father, and he felt him, and said, " The voice
is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." And,
again, as doubting still, he asks, " Art thou my very son Esau ?
and Jacob answered, I am." The inspired historian might not
interrupt his brief, yet how deeply impressive detail, to dilate on
a woman's feelings ; yet we, her descendants, are surely justified
in judging for a moment of Bebekah's emotions daring this
interview, by what our own would be. She could have had no
support, no stay, for she had wilfully banished TRUTH, and how,
then, might she PRAY ? Her whole heart and mind must have
been troubled and tossed by every trifling word ; discovery and
shame, perhaps the very loss or estrangement of her husband's
love, were as likely as the longed for success. How often,
during that interim, must she have longed once more to tread
the path of truth, for Rebekah was a mere novice in deceit ! Her
nature, as we have seen, was guileless and open as the day ; the
mere temptation of the moment, and its consequent anxious and

PERIOD I. REBEKAH. 87

impelling feelings, could not have so changed that nature, as to
make her an unmoved witness of that which followed — the very
falsehood repeated and insisted upon by those lips which she
had taught from infancy to lisp forth truth. But when the
blessing was obtained, when she saw her plan had in truth suc
ceeded" we may suppose, judging still by human nature, that
these agonizing doubts and fears were for the moment calmed
h the triumph of success — conscience was hushed again, in the
thought that she had compassed by stratagem that which she
believed impossible to have been obtained else — that it must
have been right and good so to have acted, or it would not have
been permitted to succeed. Alas ! how often do we so deceive
ourselves ! Could we but glance a little, a very little, further on,
we should know, and teel (how bitterly !) that the very deceit
we believed innocent, because it brought success, has been our
first step in the paths of woe.

And so it was with Rebekah, though as yet she knew it not.
Her feelings of triumph could not, however, have lasted long :
" And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of
blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the
presence of his father, that Esau, his brother, came in from
hunting;" and that interview followed, which, for simple and
touching pathos, is not surpassed by any incident in the Bible.

Rebekah was a partial, but not a weak or unkind mother.
She loved Jacob better than his brother, but Esau was still her
son, her first-born, and oh ! how painfully must her heart have
yearned towards him, when she heard his "great and exceeding
bitter cry !" — " Hast tliou but one blessing, my father— bless
me, even me also, O my father — and Esau lifted up his voice
and wept." Esau, the rude, the careless hunter, who had
seemed to care for naught but his own pleasures ; the chase, the
field, the wild ! He bowed down by his blind father like an
infant, and wept ; beseeching the blessing of which a mother
and a brother's subtlety had deprived him. Could Rebekah
have been a witness, or even hearer of this scene, without losing
all the triumph of success, in sympathy with the anguish of her
first born ? It is impossible to ponder on her previous character,
without being convinced of this. It is not from one act, one
unresisted temptation, that we ought to pronounce judgment on
a fellow-creature : yet, from our unhappy proneness to con
demn, we generally do so. The character of Rebekah is thus

98 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

too often supposed to be evil alone, and her unfortunate decep
tion in favor of her best beloved son is the only part of her life
brought strongly forward : whereas, if we look and think on all
that sacred history has recorded of her, that there is also perfect
silence as to any other fault (which, had she committed, we may
be sure would have been told for our warning) — it becomes
evident that this guilty action proceeded, not from forethought,
which would have manifested a naturally evil disposition, but
from impulse ; the thought, the temptation of a moment, over
balancing by its force the rectitude of years. As forethought,
we must sondemn both the sin and the sinner. As impulse, we
must abhor the sin — but only grief and trembling for the weak
ness of human nature must attend our reflections on the sinner.
Nor are we justified in denying her those emotions of grief and
doubt, which must have succeeded the triumphant success of
her momentarily formed plan.

But self-accusation was not to be her only punishment. Did
the blessed wo^d of the All- Just relate the deception alone, we
might well hesitate to affirm that her conscience brought
reproach, and believe that the deed was not as guilty as it seems.
But we are not thus left to our own imaginations. The
events which followed, so prove, without doubt or question, the
displeasure of the Eternal against the deed, that we can have
no hesitation whatever in believing that conscience, "the
angel of the Lord," was busy within her, ere the bolt of justice
fell.

" And Esau hated Jacob, because of the blessing wherewith
his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, The days
of mourning for my father are at hand ; — then will I slay my
brother Jacob. And these words of Esau her elder son were
told to Rebekah." What fearful tidings for a mother ! How
must her thoughts have returned, with agonizing forebodings,
to the first death which had marred this beautiful world. Had
not that been fratricide and for envy, the same feelino-
which now actuated Esau ? And was not she, as Eve had been,
the cause ? Still nearer cause ; for she it was, who, by leading
Jacob to deceive, had armed a brother's hand against him.
How Esau's intentions could have been revealed to her, when the
sacred historian expressly tells us that Esau but spake them in
his heart, must remain unsolved, unless, as appears most pro
bable, it was Robekah's own fears which betrayed them ; con

PERIOD I. REBEKAH. 99

farmed by the manner of Esau towards his brother, and by hei
own knowledge of his character. His strong love for his father,
which to me is the redeeming beauty of Esau's character, might
restrain him awhile — but were the death which Isaac himself
appeared to anticipate, speedily to take place, the mother's
forebodings well imagined that the haughty Esau would never
submit to bow to his brother, and call him heir. Painfully she
must have felt, that not for her would Esau restrain his purpose,
though the wildest ebullition of his natural anger was subdued
by the deep loving reverence he bore his father. Might not she
too have claimed that love, had she lavished on his youthful
years the same affection she had given to his brother ? Was it
not her own fault, that in this wild wish for vengeance, the
death of the offender, he thought not of the suffering which
such a deed would inflict on her ? That such thoughts were
ascendant, and the voice of self-reproach more loud and thrilling
than any anger against Esau for his fearful design, is proved by
her counsel to Jacob — when calling him to her, she said,
"Behold thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort him-
si-lf, purposing to kill thee. Now, therefore, my son, obey my
voice and arise, and flee thou to my brother Laban, in llaran.
And tarry with him a few clays, until thy brothers fury turn
away, and he forget that which thou hast done to K'.rn ; then I
will send, and fetch thee from thence. Why should I also be
deprived of you both in one day ?"

There is not one word of invective against Esau. If she still
supposed that her act was justified, inasmuch as it seemed to
further the designs of the Eternal, Esau's intention to slay his
brother must have seemed too sinful, too horrible, to be passed
without some comment either of anger or fear. But far
otherwise is the spirit of her words. They breathe but a
mother's anxious agony — a consciousness that Esau's wrath was
but too just. Jacob had no defence to plead, and so avert the
threatened wrath. Nothing could save him but flight, till the
hasty but not placable Esau was appeased ; and from her lips
the mandate of exile went forth : — " Why should I also be
deprived of you both in one day ?" How arYectingly do those
simple words betray, not alone the love she bore to both her
Rons, but that her thoughts turned to the history of the past —
"oreboding Eve's awful trial for herself! There is no wailing, no
5

100 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

complaint, but in those brief words, what a volume of woman's
deepest feeling is revealed !

Her real emotions having thus had vent to Jacob, Rebekah
was better able to control them before her husband ; and she
said unto him, " I am weary of my life, because of the daugh
ters of lleth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of lleth,
such as these which are of the daughters of the laud, what good
shall my life do me ?"

It would have been the extreme of cruelty to ha . e increased
the grief of the infirm Isaac, by a narration of Esau's evil inten
tions towards his brother — when Ksau himself had controlled
his fierce passion for his father's sake. Nor could Rebekah's
confession of her fault now in any way redeem it. It would
but have excited against her the anger of her hu>bund, as being
the primary cause of the dissensions between his sons — and have
occasioned him increased affliction. It was, in this instance,
wiser and better to hide from Isaac the sad cause of Jacob's
departure; and urge him to do that for his son of promise,
which Abraham had done for him ; and the mother's fearful
anxiety was calmed by the paternal command, coupled with a
reiterated blessing, for her younger son " to go to Padan-Aram,
the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife
from one of the daughters of Labau, thy mother's brother."
" And Isaac sent away Jacob."

And thus was the mother parted from the son, for whose
beloved sake she had been tempted to turn aside from the
straight line of probity and truth which in such guilelessness and
beauty she had trodden so changelessly before. And is it not
ever thus ? When we once turn from the one straight path, can
we say, thus far shall we go and no further 1 Can we set a
boundary to the rushing flood of pain and sorrow which, when
we have removed the barrier of truth, obtains dominion, dash
ing our fairest dreams to earth, and bringing misery in the very
garments of success ? And well is it for those whom the Lord
so graciously compassionates as to reveal these fatal companions
of deception ere it be too late, and the charmed path be trodden
ti]l there is no turning back.

Who can peruse the history of Rebekah, and yet believe she
was not punished for her sin ? Wherefore had she pursued
«u,eli fatal measures for the obtaining of the blessing for hei

PERIOD I. REBEKAH. 101

favor :• Jacob, save to keep him for ever by her siae, even as
Isaac id never quitted the tents of his father ? As a younger
son, & lot would in all probability have been to seek his own
fortui. As the inheritor of the blessings vouchsafed to Abra
ham, lere could be no need for him to leave her ; and what
was tJ issue ? Banishment from his mother's home, or expo
sure > his brother's wrath, — the sword of vengeance ever
hano-tr above his head. Was this nothing to a fond mother's
heart Let a parent ponder for one moment on the idea
of 01 beloved child falling by the hand of another, and his
heart ill give the answer. Parting itself was preferable to such
ever • resent dread, yet what agony must have been that
partir i

Nt then, as now, might the absent ones be united by mutu.il
intelbince. Neither post nor traveller passed between 13eer-
sheb and Padan-Aram. Long weary wastes of country
stretc-:d between, arid though Rebekah's command was,
" Tar,' there a, few days" she knew it must be long months ere
they ict again. Nor will the vague thought of the hour of
meei:i ever lessen the pang of parting. It is the pang itself
wbicuS felt, the looking in vain for the beloved form in its
accu^:ned haunts, the wild yearning to list once more the
voice vhich sounds in memory alone, to feel the fond pressure
of ti hand, the kiss which welcomed morning and evening,
witho: which day seemed scarce begun, and night came unob-
Bervt- The pictured hardships of the lonely wanderer which
no nt.her's hand may soften, the woe unsoothed, the pain
unhoftd, the tired frame untended, — these, and a hundred
other firs, and thoughts of suffering, haunt a mother's waking
drean. and nightly pillow, — felt not, dreamed not by the wan
derer yet clinging to woman's breast with a tenacity and
anoruit. time only can dispel. And because Rebekah lived so
man thousand years ago, shall we deny to her these feelings
whon.ie hour came, and her beloved one departed — departed
and one, with no manifestation of the fruit of that blessing
whic s-he had lured him to obtain ?

Wh the departure of Jacob, the history of Rebekah
conch-es, for her name is no more mentioned. — Even on her
deat;iloly Writ is silent. We only know that she was buried
in ti. cave of Machpelah, by the words of Jacob in Gen. xlix.
31. aid from there beinor nO mention whatever of her on

102 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Jacob's return to Hebron, we must infer that she died before hia
arrival, and never had the happiness of folding him to her
heart again. How sad and lonely must her declining years
have seemed without him who had been so long her stay5; even
though her long dormant affection for Esau may have been
aroused from the injustice she had done him — and he evidently
sought, with a softened spirit, to gratify his parents, by a union
with a daughter of his uncle Ishmael, — he could never have
been to her as Jacob ; and painfully and sadly must sha have
yearned for the absent, as the " few days," which she had pic
tured, widened into long months and yet longer years. How
changed must her life have seemed, and changed from the
impulse of a moment ; and as death neared — as she felt it
might no longer be averted, and she had waited and prayed in
vain to behold her son on earth once more — must she not have felt
to the full, that, though the deception had been successful, though
the blessing had been given, the means of its bestowal could
not have been " acceptable to the Lord ?" and had she, as we are
privileged to do, beheld the life of trial and disappointment, and
retributive deception, which marked the earthly course of her
favorite son, this solemn truth would have been impressed still
more.

Yet the death of Rebekah was in all probability one of peace,
and calm holy reliance on the infinite mercy of her God." He
had chastised, but in the midst of chastisement had mercy ;
the fury of Esau had been turned aside, Jacob been saved, and
peace preserved in the household of Isaac. Her earthly idol
removed from her sight, we may well believe that Rebekah
returned to her domestic duties with that singleness of purpose
and uprightness of heart which had marked her earlier years.
The temptation to turn aside, the loving mercy of the Eternal
had removed, and the mother, even while her heart bled, must
have pronounced the mandate just. If in her youth, before the
knowledge of the God of Abraham had been imparted, she had
felt with her brother, "It is the Lord, we cannot speak unto thee
bad or good," would she not — now that long years had been
passed in his service — have felt even in her affliction " it is the
Lord," and, without murmur or complaint, submit herself to His
will?

Are we then, it may be asked, to give Rebekah the meed of
unmixed admiration ? to rest only on the good points of her

PERIOD I. REBEKAH. 103

character ? No. Like all human nature, it was a blending of
the good and evil. Had Rebekah been told that, ere her life
closed, she should have acted as she did, she would in all
probability have felt it impossible ; nay, ere her children were
born, would have shrunk with horror from the idea of loving
one more than the other. All we would urge is simply, that
we are not to condemn her, as if the unfortunate propensity of
woman, " to compass by stratagem," were the marked fail
ing of her character, and that therefore the evil not the food
was ever the ascendant. This is the common error into which
superficial thinkers fall ; and from such have arisen questions as
to the morality of the Bible, that its holiress would be more
confirmed were there no such faults recorded. If indeed those,
of whom it so impartially writes, were thus faultless, it would be
destined for the use of Angels, not of man. But not such was
the design of the Eternal. He inspired holy men to write that
which would comfort and sustain man, when his immediate
presence and guidance were veiled from mortal eyes ; arid II is
faithful servants alike, male and female, were depictured in their
virtues and their failures, with an impartiality and truth which
were to be our hope in our lowly efforts after virtue, and our conso
lation in our weakness and our sin. Rebekah's fault was one, her
virtues many ; and therefore, while we abhor and pray against the
sin, we can only grieve and lament that human weakness which
triumphed in one moment of strong temptation over the
virtuous strength of years. We dare not condemn and scorn
that weakness ; for did we so, we scorn, and condemn, and pro
nounce judgment on ourselves. How may we assert that, had
we been placed as Rebekah in that dread moment, we too
should not have done as she did ? Can we assert that the
promise of the Eternal would have been so strongly impressed
within us, that we could have left its fulfilment in His hands,
without one effort by our own agency to forward it ? Can we
say that we should have gone to Him in prayer, beseeching
Him to counteract the design of Isaac in favor of his firstborn,
and rest contented that the prayer would be heard and
answered ?

There may be some too, loudly and reproachfully to condemn
that weak partiality which was the real origin of the evil, — yet
let such take heed, lest they too should fall by the same weak-

104 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

ness, for they know not how their affections may equally be
tried. Oh ! not in condemnation of our meek * and gentle
ancestress shall we reap the benefit of her example, and turn
aside from her faults. If, even in her, the weakness of human
nature once triumphed over the immortal spirit, what may save
us from the same fault ? Will the purity of youth, the piety
^f early womanhood, the truth and virtue of long years?
Will these obtain such sway as always to be our safeguard and
our strength ? Alas ! not these : it must be the grace of God
alone, sought by constant prayer and utter dependence upon
Him, — the constant watch over ourselves, — the knowledge of
our own weakness, — that which most exposes us to fall beneath
temptation, — the consciousness that there is not a domestic
duty, — not a home affection, — not an hour's employment, — not
a daily path or nightly thought, in which sin may not creep in
and obtain dominion, unless effectually guarded against by
unceasing watchfulness and prayer. And to us, yet more than
any other nation in the world, is this watchful care and daily
petition needed. To ISRAEL is INTRUSTED THE HONOR OF
THE LORD ; His chosen, His beloved, His witnesses, the record
ers of His ways unto man, the promulgators of His eternal
love. How may we be lukewarm in His cause, when we are
so called upon to exalt His glory ? We are scattered among
the nations as witnesses of the PAST and pledges of the
FUTURE, and shall we with indifference permit others to claim
the privileges which are ours, and assert that, until the epoch
of Christianity, God had no witnesses upon earth ? No,
O no ! Surely, individually and nationally, we shall use our
every effort to proclaim our high and glorious descent amid
the nations !

One point more, and we must conclude this memoir, already
so much longer than we intended. It has been said, that as
the Eternal ordained that Jacob was to receive the promised
blessing, and that the "elder should serve the younger," it
must have been obtained in some way ; and therefore the
means of its accomplishment were of little consequence, thus
endeavoring to remove all that was reprehensible in the
conduct of Jacob and his mother. Nay, some commentators
try to make her conduct proceed from a belief that her course
of " acting was in such conformity with the divine prediction,

PERIOD I. REBEKAH. 105

ihc,t she determined at all risks, and by any means, to secure
the blessing hr her younger and more worthy son." *

This species of reasoning appeal's as mistaken as the too
violent condemnation of Rebekah, and so completely at
variance with the simple, trusting piety of the patriarchs and
their families, that we cannot at all suppose it actuating the
mother's feelings. Besides which, to think thus, supposes a
pre-determination to deceiv-3 her husband, whereas the narrative
of the Bible clearly marks it the impulse of the moment.

Isaac, before his birth, was the child of promise to Abraham :
the Lord had promised he should be the father of a multitude,
and in him and his seed all nations should be blessed. Yet
that very child, Abraham was commanded to sacrifice, and
without hesitation he prepared to obey, feeling convinced, that
though to him the means of accomplishing the divine promise
were plunged in darkest mystery — if indeed his child must die
— yet still that the promise would be fulfilled with'out any inter
vention of man ; his duty was simply to obey, and the promise
was fulfilled.

As the command of the Lord to slay his son was the trial of
Abraham's faith, so were the words of Isaac to Esau the trial
of Rebekah's. She ought to have known, from that very
incident in the early life of her husband, that whatever the
Lord has once said, He WILL perform, however mysterious may
seem the means of its accomplishment — that though Isaac
might intend to give the blessing to his first-born, his words
would have been overruled, and the blessing reserved for Jacob,
without any strife between the brothers or their consequent
separation. But her faith was not strong enough for that most
difficult duty — to " wait for the Lord." Woman-like, feeling
was her weakness, impulse her guide, faith succumbed before
these, and so left her unguarded, when its invulnerable defence
was more needed than it had ever been before.

Rebekah had perhaps some excuse for her momentary fancy
that her course of acting was, from its success, acceptable to
4,he Lord ; but we have NONE. The idea that human means
are necessary to forward any intention of the Most High,
cannot be entertained a single moment without verging on
onpiety, when we have the whole Word of God to prove bj

» Philippson :— See Notes to Mr. De Sola's Bible.

106

THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

precept and example that He is as omnipotent to do as to will,
Man is a free agent. Rebekah had equal power to " wait for
the Lord " as to urge her son to deception. That she chose
the latter was human frailty, no pre-ordainment. He indeed
permitted the fraud in appearance to succeed, because He had
already ordained that Jacob should be the promised seed, arid
His changeless and all-wise decree might not be turned aside
even to annul, and so punish the designs of sin. But that in
no way exculpates the fraud. Had no deceit whatever been
practised, the blessing would still have been Jacob's. It
matters not how ; it is enough to know that the ways of the
Eternal are not our ways, and that His decrees require no aid
of man.

That human designs, however sinful, however contrary to the
pleasure of the Lord, are overruled to further His divine economy
— no one who attentively studies and believes God's Word can for
a single moment doubt ; but this truth in not one tittle renders us
less responsible beings. That the Eternal ever bringeth forth
and worketh universal good from partial evil, proves His loving
kindness, His beneficence, His all-wise, ever acting mercy alone.
Not that man is in any point acquitted, or that evil is a
necessary adjunct to the bringing forth of good. The workers
and the designers of evil are, individually, objects of displeasure,
and will suffer the burden of their guilt. The doers of evil the
God of Love abhors, even while His compassion overrules the
deeds, and turns them in His hand to the furtherance of
good.

We are earnestly and heartily anxious to impress this
important truth on the minds of our younger readers, who, in
their early perusal of God's Holy Word, may and will feel
startled, that human weakness should not only be recorded, but
its actions be permitted to succeed. Success is not always a
proof of the Eternal's approbation. The history of both
Rebekah and Jacob proves the displeasure of the Lord towards
ttemselves individually, though their action was overruled to
the accomplishment of His previous will. Rebekah never saw
her son again ; and Jacob, though spiritually blessed, was in his
earthly career more unfortunate than any of his family before
or after him.

This narrative alone, then, ought to bid us eschew a.
wandering from the one straight path of single-hearted truth

PERIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 107

that we never can do so without exciting the displeasure of our
Heavenly Father, even though our plans may seem crowned
with unmerited success. The attribute of our God is TRUTH :
how then dare we believe that He smiles upon those who
depart from it, or requires human deception to forward His
almighty will ? As His children, His own, His first-born, oh ! let
our "watchword be TRUTH ! Let our upright, single-minded,
straightforward adherence to truth in every thought, word, and
deed, proclaim WHOSE WITNESSES we are, and compel the
nations to acknowledge that we are " Israelites indeed ! "

CHAPTER IV.

LEA II AND RACHEL.

[T was on the same spot, in the land of the East, where nearly
a century previous Abraham's steward had bowed himself to the
earth ic. prayer, that several shepherds and their flocks were
assembled, grouped by the side of a well, from whose mouth
the jrreat stone covering had not yet been rolled aside. It was
high noon, when a stranger approached, and courteously
addressing the shepherds, inquired : " My brethren, whence be
ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. And he said unto
them, Know ye Laban, the son of Nahor ? And they said, We
know him. And he said unto them, Is he well ? And they
said, He is well, and behold Rachel his daughter cometh with
the sheep. And while he yet spake with them Rachel came
with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to pass
when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban his mother's
brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob
went near, and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and
watered the sheep ; and Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his
voice and wept, and Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's
brother, and that he was Rebekah's son. And she ran and toL
her father."

108 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Such, in the simple yet impressive language of Holy Writ,
was the first meeting of Jacob and his beautiful cousin.

Lonely and sad the exiled Jacob had turned from the home
of his childhood and the parents of his love. The child of
promise and of prayer — the inheritor of God's especial blessing
— the ancestor of kings — was compelled to make his bed on the
cold earth, with nothing but stones for his pillow. How must
his thoughts have clung to his mother and his home! That
his heart was once more fitted for the reception and comprehen
sion of holy things, is proved by tho dream which Infinite
Wisdom vouchsafed, to strengthen and encourage him. The
promise would not have been revealed to one unworthy to receive
it. ^ Though human weakness may sully and darken even the
choicest servants of the Lord, yet not unto the impure, the
unholy, the unrepentant, would the Holy One impart the bless
ing of His spirit and His guidance. Acknowledgment of his
fault must have brought Jacob once more to the feet of his
Heavenly Father, or the confirmation of the blessed promise
would have still been delayed.

On the beautiful, the most consoling vision vouchsafed to
Jacob, consoling, not only to him but to us, we may not linger.
Yet, though so spiritually consoled, strengthened, and refreshed,
the mortal nature of the wanderer must often have obtained
ascendency during his journey, and have rendered it at the very
least dreary and sad. Jacob had never been tried till his
departure from his father's house ; and, therefore, though awe
struck and " afraid" at the glorious revelation when its impression
was vividly before him, his very vow supposes a slight degree
of doubt, natural to one only just called upon to believe: " If
the Lord will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I
go, give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come
again to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my
God." " Bread to eat and raiment to put on." Even for these
petty cares and trials he was dependent on the Lord alone ; yet
that he did not possess even these — that he had literally left
the tent of his father with his staff for his sole possession, may
give us some idea of the human trials of our forefathers, even
of those whom the Lord most blessed. Their greatness, their
influence, their riches, were to come from God alone, not from
man ; their lives were to bear witness to His providence, even as
•.heir descendants are witnesses of the fulfilment of H?s word

PERIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 109

As Jacob was subject to all the inconveniences, fatigue, and
suffering of travelling through a strange and often hostile
country, as any other wanderer — his feelings, on nearing the
abode of his uncle, may more easily be imagined than described.
In his conversation with the shepherds, and then in his actively
rolling aside the stone and watering the sheep, we may read
the manly effort to restrain emotion, which, however, spurned
all control when, in the simple and beautiful affection of the
patriarchal age, " he kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and
wept." Wept, that God had in His ?oving mercy guided
him thus far, and seemed to promise that newly known, yet
instinctively loved, relations should fill up the aching void in
his heart, which the sudden separation from his mother must
have caused.

" And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of
Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced
him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he
told Laban all these things. And Laban said, Surely thou
art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the
space of a month." Again is family affection vividly brought
before us.

If the reckoning of some commentators be true, and Jacob
was seventy-six when he entered the household of Laban, nearly
one hundred years must have elapsed since Rebekah had
quitted her maiden home. Yet how closely and fondly must
her memory have been enshrined in the heart of her brother,
and through him cherishea by his children, that Jacob was
thus so warmly and delightedly welcomed, simply because ho
was " Rebekah's son."

Youth in Laban had changed to manhood, manhood to age.
He had nearer and dearer calls upon his heart in his character
of husband and father ; yet still the memory of the " hand-in-
hand companion of his childhood" remained pure, and beautiful,
and strong, as if absence had never come between them. Will
not this fact reveal how acceptable in the Lord's sight is the
encouragement of those affections which His love has given to
his children ? And how sad, how wrong it is to permit coldness
and indifference to steal in between the members of one family.
Would Laban have entertained such fond recollections of
Rebekah, had their early youth been passed in that utter want
of cordiality and confidence, faithfulness and affection, which

110 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

but too often mar the unity and beauty of modern fashionable
homes ? Oh ! not to be expended only on the stranger, hath the
God of love stored our hearts with affection, with reverence,
with all that can make home an earthly heaven ! Would we
truly love and seek to please Him, our first duty must be, to
love and make those happy with whom our daily lot is cast.

Two daughters blessed the house of Laban ; the elder Leah,
the younger Rachel. Now " Leah was tender-eyed, and
Rachel beautiful and well-favored." As the sacred historian
disdains not to mention this, we may be permitted to pause one
moment upon the characteristics of the two sisters. That Leah
was much less beautiful than her sister is evident from the
words of the text, but it does not appear that she was as plain
and homely as some commentators declare her. The Hebrew
word translated " tender," " And the eyes of Leah were tender
(rriis'l uttb "'JpJlV' does not signify weak only, as is generally
supposed, but soft and delicate, and leads me to suppose that
the soft and tender eyes of Leah were her only good feature,
whereas her younger sister was " very beautiful and of exceed
ing beauty," which is the literal meaning of the Hebrew expres
sion n&i tin^n irrn na'-ifc nsm "i^n though even such

. f T»T » Ti "I- -• -'

translation is far from possessing the force of the original. This
Difference of appearance occasioned, as would appear by the
sequel, a complete difference of character.

One month Jacob abode with his uncle, evidently doing him
active service in return for the hospitality which he had
received. That he did so, tells well for the real character of the
wanderer; for in his father's house Jacob had never been
accustomed to active service, and it must have demanded some
little exertion of will over inclination, to have permitted its
steady and active performance. Laban, however, at this period
of their intimacy, felt too kindly and generously towards his
nephew to permit him to work without wages. " And he said
unto him, Because thou art my brother, shouldst thou therefore
serve me for naught ? Tell me what shall thy wages be ? Ano
Jacob loved Rachel, and said, I will serve thee seven years fot
Rachel thy younger daughter. And Laban said, It is better
I give her unto thee than to another man. Abide with me.
A.nd Jacob served seven years for Rachel ; and they seemed unto
tim but a few days, for the love he had to her.'1

1'EKIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. ill

We think much of those tales of chivalry where man performs
iome great and striking deed — conquers his own passions-
becomes a voluntary wanderer — all to win the smile and love
of woman. And we do right, for the motive is pure and the
moral good. But such high-wrought volumes should not blind
our hearts and eyes to this exquisite narration, wherein the same
truth, the same moral is impressed, with equal force and beauty,
only in the simple language of the Bible. Jacob's servitude
was a more convincing proof of his love and constancy than
those exciting deeds of heroism which chivalry records. Hia
was no service to call upon distant lands and far-off ages to
admire. Nothing for FAME, that brilliant meteor, which,
equally with love, divided the warrior's heart in the middle
ages. Nothing to vary the routine of seven years' domestic
duty, the wearisome nature of which we fiud in the 38th and
39th verses of chapter xxxi. Yet these " seven years seemed
but as a few days for the love he had to her" A brief yet
most emphatic sentence, revealing the purest, the holiest, the
most unselfish love, unrestrained by one fleeting thought of
worldly aggrandizement, or a hope beyond making that beloved
one his own. " Consumed by the draught by day, chilled by
the frost at night," still he never wavered. Love was his
upholder — his sustainer. And it was for this end love was so
mercifully given.

As the word of God disdains not to portray the extent of
iove borne by one mortal for another, we trust we may be par
doned if we linger a moment on that emotion, the very name
of which is generally banished from the education of young
females, as if to feel or excite it were a crime, forgetting that, in
banishing all idea of its influence, we banish also the proper
means of regulating that influence, and subject our young charge
unguarded to the very evil that we dread.

God gave not love to bind to earth, but to raise to heaven :
not to make us earthly idols, but, on the very love we bear each
other, to lift up the soul to 115 in — to lighten toil and soften grief,
to heighten joy and bless our earthly sojourn with a bright ray
from that exhaustless fount of love which waits for us above.
Without some emotion powerful enough to draw us out of our
selves for an earthly brother, how could we ever subject our
selfish hearts to the will of our God ? h»w perform those self-
sacrifices most acceptable to Him ? Stronger than pain and

112 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

toil, arid even death, it is the very essence of our being, the
spiritual essence, which marks more powerfully than aught else
our immortal de«tlny ; and from the reflection of that destiny
lends a glow to earth. " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, and soul, and might," is the command of the
Eternal — an important command — yet not given till after His
word had revealed to us that it was possible, nay, that it was a
necessary consequence, for those who served and loved Him
best, to love and cleave unto each other. Had not the heart
been created with full capacity to love, this command would
not have been given ; and He who has placed us in a world of
beauty, who has gathered around us objects to excite every
feeling, demands not that those feelings are to be devoted to
Him alone in utter neglect of our fellows.

It is not passion to which we allude, though but too often the
words are deemed synonymous. Nor do we mean passion when
we say that love is the handmaid of religion. No, it is a spirit
ual, not an earthly feeling ; spiritual even when it relates to
man, not God. And if, indeed, it be so, and the more we
reflect upon it the more we feel it is, or ought to be, why should
it be a subject, as it too often is, of jest, of scorn, and those under
its influence deemed not far removed from folly and romance?
Why should education never allude to it save as a dreadful and
unlikely thing, and the sage lesson so often conned, that reason,
not affection, is to be our guide ? Were the word religion sub
stituted for reason in such educational codes, the young heart
would be so trained as to eschew all fear of mere earthly love ;
it would know itself, its own impulses, its own feelings, and so
set a strong guard upon those most likely to lead to error, while
it encouraged all that would urge to good. It would feel that
love was of God, and therefore not a subject for levity or jest ;
— that it was sent to lift up the spirit to Him, and therefore not
so to expend its force on an earthly idol as to lead to extrava
gance and folly ; — that it was to last for ever, not unto death, but
beyond it, and therefore not to be given to one whose future
was of earth, and who sought in its possession but the gratifica
tion of a few fleeting years ; — that it was to endure through
sorrow and sickness, and trial and woe, not to be the mere har
binger of gaiety and joy, to shine in a ball-room and glitter in
R bridal robe ; — but to bear with occasional irritability or evcE
with unkindness and apparent neglect • with faults which we

PERIOD I . LEAH AND RACHEL. 113

must never breathe ; with intervals of an utter want of sympa
thy, even of depreciation, which we must endure, solace, and
foro-ive : — not to suppose that we shall ever be as when that
love is first called forth, our wishes granted ere told, our every
feeling answered, our every virtue appreciated, our very failings
lovedf And to be prepared for this — to love thus with a
strength, a purity that will bear all this, aye, and more painful
still, the very sacrifices of self which love impels, unfelt, unknown,
uncared for, or if seen, but deemed our duty, and coldly passed
uncheered — will aught but that love which is spiritual sustain
us ? and will such emotion come to the young heart without
some preparatory training ? Oh ! not while love is deemed
romance, not while it is made a jest, or shunned as something
guilty or derogatory, will it, can it ever be as the God oMove
ordained, the purest, dearest blessing earth can know, the jove-
liest type of heaven.

Something more than Rachel's beauty, marvellous as that
was, must have so retained Jacob's love for her in those seven
years of domestic intercourse, as to make the time appear but a
few days. Beauty may attract and win if the time of courtship
be too brief to require no other charm, but it is not sufficient of
itself to retain affection. Gift from God, as it is, how may it be
abused, and how may it be wasted in caring only for the lovely
shape without, and leaving the rich invisible gems within un
cared for and unused ! Oh ! if there be one among my youthful
readers, of beauty exceeding as that of Rachel, who holdeth in
her possession this rich gift of God, let her remember that lie
will demand of her how she hath used it, — that its abuse, its
pntenied neglect, yet in reality proud value, will pass not un
noticed by its beneficent Giver. It has been granted for some
en(l? — for if to look on a beautiful flower will excite emotions of
admiration and love, and consequently enjoyment, how much
more deeply would such feelings be called forth by a beautiful
face, could we but behold it as the hands of God had formed it,
unshaded by the impress of those emotions of pride, contempt
or self-sufficiency, or that utter void of intellect, which are but
too often its concomitants, from the mistaken notion thai out
ward beauty is omnipotent, and needs no help within.

To hide from a young girl that she is beautiful is the extreme
of follv, for her mirror will tell her that she is being deceived,
sjiul the influence of such informers will be lost at once No—

114 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

let the real value and consequent responsibility of beauty be
inculcated, and there will be no fear of its abuse.

That Rachel had many most endearing qualities we may
quite infer from Jacob's devoted love to her even to her death.
The spirit most impatient under contradiction, and loving its
own will, is often united to a manner so engaging, and qualities
so calculated to win regard, that trivial faults of temper arid will
are literally engendered from the difficulty it is to reprove a
being so beautiful and so beloved ; and this would seem the
case with Rachel. Young, joyous, and loving, we may fancv
her the very star of her father's home, valuing her beauty as it
gave her power to obtain whatever she willed uncontradicted,
but using it only in the sphere of home.

But though Jacob's affections were devoted to jne alone,
those seven years of intimate association must have been fraught
with suffering and sadness to Laban's elder daughter, whose
strong affection for Jacob the sequel will reveal. Her compelled
agency in her father's fraud must have been fraught with
absolute horror to a heart that loved secretly and unreturned,
as herself, and heightened the trial of unrequited affection in no
ordinary degree.

We will not linger on the affairs narrated in Genesis xxix.,
from the 21st to the 30th verse, because they belong so strictly
to the manners and customs of the Eastern nations, that it is
quite impossible to comment upon them with any justice,
prejudiced, as birth and education cannot fail to make us, in
favoi Df the manners and customs of modern Europe. Yet the
customs of the East have undergone little or no change ; and
repeaf.adly we find that, which in the narratives of the Bible
may startle our modern European notions, as strange and
improbable, confirmed by events passing in the East at this very
day, so that those very narratives would there be scarcely
considered a history of the past.

Though beguiled into another seven years' servitude for his
much-loved Rachel, it is evident that she had become his wife
first, Jacob honorably performing the word he had pledged,
after the wished-for prize had been obtained ; and not till
those seven years were completed, do we hear him utter one
word of complaint or one wish to provide for "his own house
also."

•'And when the Lc-d saw that Leah was hated (lit. less

PERIOD I . LEAH AND RACHEL. 115

lovt-d), He gave her children, but Rachel Iwd none. Ar.d she
called the name of her eldest son Reuben : for, she said, " Surely
the Lord hath looked upon my affliction ; now therefore my
husband will love me." What a volume of woman's deepest
feelings and the compassionating love of the Eternal do these brief
lines reveal ! lie who had, in His inscrutable wisdom, ordained
that Leah should be tried in the fiery ordeal of woman's saddest
loneliness, unrequited affection, yet deigned to grant a compen
sating blessing in all the sweet, pure feelings of a mother's love.
Who that reads but this one verse can uphold that woman is
less an object of tender love and compassion to her God than
man ? Who can say that the Mosaic records are silent on this
head ? The words of man to point out the proper station and
value of woman we need not, for the children of Israel have the
WORD OF THEIR GOD. And do we not still recognise tbe God
of Leah ? Ilis ear has not become heavy that it cannot near,
nor His arm shortened that it cannot save. And though He
may not bestow on us a visible and audible manifestation of
Ilis tender compassion as on Leah, yet we may be certain that
lie will grant us some compensating blessing for every joy of
which he may think fit to deprive us. And even for those
bitter griefs, which from their nature, their seeming selfishness,
woman shrinks in trembling from bringing before her God, and
buries them in her own heart till it bleeds at every pore, — Leah's
history proves that He will grant peace and healing. It may
be that a wisei and kinder will than her own has flung an insu
perable barrier between woman's heart and its dearest object ;
and impelled her by all that is refined and delicate in her
character, to hide deep from every eye the anguish which is
her burden. How blessed then that even for such a grief there
is the fount of healing waters still in the word of God — that
she may come thert and read, not only the abundance, the
fulness of his love, but that He has especial tenderness for those
by earth unloved ! And as He gave Leah children because she
was not loved, so will He grant such sufferers a peace, and calm,
and joy in the consciousness of His unfailing tenderness, far
surpassing even the rich and glowing, but too transient happi
ness of sympathy on earth.

Leah must have known and loved the Lord long before the
avent recorded, else she had not thus welcomed the birth of her
irst child. Eight years of Jacob's sojourn in her father's house-

116 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

hold would scarcely have been sufficient for her to know and lova
her cousin's invisible God, had she not had some vague yet true
notions of Him before.

That Jacob should often have alluded to the God of his
fathers, and narrated the wonderful manifestations of His provi
dence, and that such solemn themes should have fallen with
peculiar impressiveness on the heart of Leah, and but lightly on
the buoyant impetuous Rachel, may be inferred from Jie history
of both. After the gods of her father, Leah has no hankering
whatever ; her reference, in both her griefs and joys, is to Jacob's
God alone.

By her exclamation at the birth of her second son, we may
suppose that the fond hope expressed the year previous, " Now
therefore my husband will love me," was still not realized.
" Because the Lord hath heard that I am not loved, He hath
therefore given me this son also." To many the repetition of a
blessing renders it invaluable, and, in the imperfection of our
earthly nature, the continued disappointment of our dearest
wishes would have rendered the heart callous, perhaps repining,
at the very blessing which had before brought joy. But not
thus was it with Leah : gratefully she received a second little
treasure from the hand of her God ; and, bearing again the pang
of ever-blighted hope, she utters no wish of an earthly kind, but
simply feels she has still the love of God. Another year, and
another son is granted; and we may trace a ray beaming even
through her earthly darkness, in the new upspringing of buoy
ant hope — "Now will my husband be joined unto me, for I have
borne him three sons."

Whether, indeed, the fond wish was realized, and Jacob's
heart was softened towards her, must be but conjecture ; yet it
would almost appear so, for, at the birth of her fourth son, her
pious heart is satisfied with the fervent ejaculation, " Now will I
praise the Lord." Drawn closer and closer unto her God, with His
every precious gift, she, who gave her first-born a name signifying
" the son of affliction," gave her fourth the beautiful appellation
of " praise unto the Lord." It was not only a gift of children,
then, His love bestowed. He had brought light from darkness,
He had turned her mourning into praise, and returned with ten
fold blessing her meek enduring confidence in Him. Shall we
then, who may be in the darkness of sorrow and heavy caro,
ihrink from walking in her steps, and dwell only on the afflic

PERIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 117

tim which is ours ? Shall we not also look and strive for some
oiessing which can bid us too " praise the Lord," and lead us to
behol(T%W where all was heaviness ? There is no lot so deso
late which, if we seek Him, the Lord will not bless: not,
perhaps, by the removal of our present sorrow, but by SOIKO
compensating mercy. We must not suppose that seeking Him
and loving Him will exempt us from affliction. No, for, if it did,
where would be that heavenly exercise which alone can fit us for
heaven ? Nor are we, as some enthusiasts would urge, to regard
trials as^oys, and welcome them with gladness. When a ten
der loving parent chastises a beloved child to keep him from the
paths of sin, would he feel that the chastisement had clone its
work if the little being received it with smiles and rejoicing?
Surelv the parent would be more hopeful if the child were serious,
and e'ven sad. And is it not so with the afflictions sent from
our eternal and most tender Father ? We may think that^ we
surely need them not ; and our lives may even be, in the sight
of man, as we ourselves suppose them. Nay, they may be num
bered amongst those whom the Bible gives us promise shall be
accounted the righteous in the sight of God ; yet how know we
what we might have been without such affliction ? How know
we but those very sorrows, lasting but a time, are preparing us
to be of those whom the Lord writeth in His book for eternity,
who shall be His when He maketh up His jewels ? Of this only
are we certain, that the Lord loveth whom He correcteth. Then,
while like Leah we feel affliction, let us hope on, pray on, with
undoubting faith, that one day we too shall cry aloud, " Now
will I praise the Lord."

Very different to the meek submissiveness and gentle disposi
tion of her elder sister, is the impetuous temper and sinful
feeling of envy which urged Rachel angrily to exclaim, even to
her doting husband, " Give me children, or else I die. And
Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel : and he said, Am I
in God's stead, who hath withheld children from thee ?

Wre have been previously told, — " And when Rachel saw that
she bare Jacob no children, she envied her sister." Envied
whom ? even the homely, the unloved Leah. It was not enough
that God had endowed her with most surpassing beauty, and
given her the perfect love of a husband who had proved, was still
proving his devoted attachment to herself alone, by fourteen
years' hard servitude. It signified little that Leah had but her

H8 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Children, and that her own cup of blessings was filled to flowing
over.

In glancing over the history of the two sisters, must we not feel
that Rachel ought to be the happier, as she was the more bless
ed ? ^ Yet it was not so. Leah, with her heavy burden of
affliction, was the happier, for she neither envied nor complained,
but leaned upon her God — and in consequence, from Him
received consolation. Rachel could have had no such stay.
" Give me children, or else I die !" was the exclamation of a
querulous, self-willed spirit, looking only to man, and depending
upon him. Yet the knowledge of the Lord must have been
equally revealed to liachel as to her sister. Daughters of the
same household, cousins of the same witness of God, — Jacob's
religious education and experience must have been imparted to
her also. She may have even listened during the time for
Jacob's sake, banishing its recollection entirely afterwards, as a
theme much too solemn and grave for her present joyous days.
And are there not such even now, deeming religion and her rich
train of holy and blessed thoughts, quite incompatible with youth
and beauty, and who believe age is time enough to think of such
serious things ?

That her feeling and its expression were both wrong we per
ceive by Jacob's anger and reproof. Loving Rachel as he did,
it must have been something very blamable to call severity from
his lips. Ignorance may excite our pity, but not our blame.
Had Rachel been ignorant who had blessed her sister with chil
dren, Jacob would have answered differently — but her impatient
words caused his " anger to be kindled against her," because ho
felt and knew that they must have come from a spirit as impa
tient as rebellious, and were therefore likely to excite the
displeasure of the Lord. " Am I in God's stead ?" meaning, can
I give you children if God hath withheld them. Words brief,
but impressively proving Jacob's individual dependence on and
trust in his God, and which ought to have subdued and
hurnoled the discontent and envy of his wife. But though they
checked the querulous words, they had no power to change the
inward feelings, and determined at aM risks, all sacrifices, to obtain
children also, she followed the example of Sarah, and forced her
Husband, by increasing the number of his wives, to undergo all
fhe miseries of a divided household.

Yet. when Bilhah had a son, we find Rachel welcoming him

PEKIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 119

with such a joyful thanksgiving, and as a gift from God — that
we raio-ht -wonder at her former impatience — did we not know,
that there are many who trace the hand of the Lord, and think
they love and serve Him, when all of life is smooth and smiling,
yet act, at the first trial, for the first cross, as if they knew Him not
at all, and denied His power to help and save. "God hath
j-iiged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a
son.'*5 Had she then prayed — and did she recognise in thought-
fulness the answer to her prayer? Or was her exclamation at
tho birth of Dan but a presumptuous supposition from a
presumptuous spirit — believing without due authority that she
had prevailed with God? We have not sufficient authority in
Scripture, to pronounce judgment one way or the other on this
point, and must therefore leave it to the consideration of our
readers.

Once only do words of sorrowing reproach escape Leah's lips
towards her sister. " Is it a small matter that thou hast taken
my husband ?" Words simply expressive of the natural pang
which must sometimes have entered her heart — when year after
year passed, and still beheld her deep affections less valued
than the lighter love of Rachel.

Two other sons were born unto the elder sister ; and one
daughter, a blessing which had never before been vouchsafed the
patriarchs. Then it was, " that God remembered Rachel ; and
God hearkened to her and gave her children." " God remem
bered Rachel." Had He forgotten ? no, neither forgetfulness
nor memory dwelleth with God — for He is omniscient as omni
potent, knowing and perceiving all. But when speaking of Him,
His dealings with His children must be expressed in language,
and by images suited to their finite conception, — not according
to the adorable and glorious, but unfathomable infinity surround
ing Him. He thought upon and hearkened to her — for such is,
equally with remember, the meaning of the term — bnvtia ST^£
ISni trnba fplbx SJgd'n — words, how full of consolation and
encouragement to Rachel's female descendants ! Man would have
condemned, and sentenced her to a chastisement of perpetual
childlessness — for the tenderest mercies of humanity are cruel
compared to the tender mercies of the Most High ! but He whom
she had offended by mistrust, forgetfulness, impatience, angry
emotions towards her sister, had compassion, and not only

120 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

u remembered" that she was a weak and yearning woman, but
" hearkened" to her supplications, and gave reply.

" God hath taken away my reproach," Rachel gratefully
exclaimed. "And she called his name Joseph, and said, the
Lord shall add unto her another son." Could she have pene
trated futurity — well indeed might she have felt that God had
removed her reproach ; for who that reflects on the angelic
beauty and faultlessness of Joseph, can recall his mother without
bestowing on her a portion of the love and veneration we lavish
on her son I

It is when oowed down by inward remorse for a conscious
ness of innate sinfulness, by the impossibility of realizing that
perfect holiness which would guard us from approach to wrong
either in act and thought towards our fellow creatures, or in
mistrust and forgetfulness of God, that we should remember the
history of Rachel and take comfort. There are some, who,
unable to bear the sting of an awakened conscience, drown it
altogether, by fleeing from every holy exercise of prayer and self-
examination, and believe that as in this life we must be liable to
occasional faults, it is perfectly useless striving, much less praying
against them, as such prayer can be of no service, and is but a
mockery before God. Some minds may bear this awful state — to
others, the young, the deeper feeling, and more yearning hearts,
it is a period of absolute anguish — which, without some spiritual
help, is impossible to be sustained ; and so religion is cast off as a
subject of terror, of suffering, and the world and the world's pana
ceas substituted in its place. To such, more especially if they be
women, we would say, Come but to the word of God — and even
for such griefs there is all we need. There the Eternal not only
proclaims " Himself a God full of compassion, long suffering,
abundant in goodness and mercy, forgiving iniquity, transgres
sion, and sin," but proves these consoling and most blessed
attributes, not only after, but before they were proclaimed.
Rachel was more faulty than many of her sex, yet her prayers
were heard, her affliction compassionated, her wish fulfilled.
How may we then despair, or think that the infirmities of our
mortal frame and the sinfulness they bring, can throw a barrier
between us and our God ? It is not to the righteous alone He
awardeth mercy and love, but to the contrite and humble spirit,
with whom the " High and Holy One who inhabiteth eternity
if lighteth to dwell." With such proofs we may not despair, we

PERIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 121

dare not doubt, but we are called to Him as little children sorrow
ing to be forgiven, in the full consciousness how deeply we are
loved.

It was after the birth of Joseph, that Jacob's fourteen years of
servitude being completed, he said unto Laban, " Send me away
onto mine own place, and to my country. Give me my wives
and children for whom I have served thee, and let me go, for
thou knowest the service which I have done thee. And Laban
said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes,
tarry ; for I have learned by experience, that the LORD hath
blessed me for thy sake : and he said appoint me thy wages, and
I will give it. And he said unto him, thou knowest how I have
served thee, and how thy cattle was with me — for it was little
before I came, and now it is increased into a multitude, and the
Lord has blessed thee since my coming ; now when shall I pro
vide for mine own house also. And he said, what shall I give
thee ? And Jacob said thou shall not give me anything."

And that agreement followed which has most unjustly
exposed Jacob to the accusation of duplicity and fraud. It is
supposed that his plan of placing the peeled rods in the drink
ing troughs occasioned the greater number of the cattle to be
" nng-straked, speckled, and spotted ;" and in that manner Laban
was defrauded, and Jacob received much more than his due.
That Jacob refused all gifts from Laban, appears to me to origin
ate in the same feeling which actuated Abraham to refuse gifts
from the king of Sodom, " lest he should say, I have made
Abraham rich." Depending upon Him who had promised, " I
will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spokou
to thee of," Jacob neither could nor would accept gifts from man,
preferring to work himself, and leave the issue in the hands of
God. And this he did, and God blessed him with riches suffi
cient for his need.

Can it be supposed for one moment, after mature consideration,
that the cattle could have become ring-straked, speckled, and
spotted, without the immediate agency of God, who had deter
mined thus to provide for His believing servant ? Can it be
believed that it was in the power of man, by however subtle a
echeme in appearance, to create a variety in the cattle, unless the
Lord also had so willed it ? Laban had not behaved as generously
or even as fairly by his nephew as his first affectionate welcome
niight lead us to suppose. We know from the vows of Jacob

122 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

himself, which Laban does not contradict, that, " except the God
of my fathers had been with me, surely thou hadst now sent me
away empty." And we may, therefore, rest perfectly content,
that in the affair of the cattle no blame can be attached to Jacob.
lie was but a secondary cause, whose scheme would have been
entirely vain had it not been blessed by the Eternal.

Increasing exceedingly in much cattle, and maid-servants and
men-servants, and camels, and asses, the wrath and envy of
Laban's sons were excited towards him. And he saw that
Laban's own countenance was not towards him as before — cir
cumstances which must have excited much human anxiety and
tear. And then it was the Lord said unto him, "Return unto
the land of thy fathers and thy kindred, and I will be with
thee."

" And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field
unto his flock." And in the perfect confidence of love and
respect, imparted all to them. " I see your father's countenance
is not towards us as before ; but the God of my fathers has been
with me. And ye know that with all my power I have served
your father ; and your father has deceived me, and changed my
wages ten times ; but God suffered him not to hurt me. If he
said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages, then all the cattle
bare speckled ; and if he said thus, The ring-straked shall be thy
hire, then all the cattle bare ring-straked. Thus God hath
taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me"

There is something to me peculiarly beautiful in this simple
address of Jacob, spoken as it is to his wives. Not a word of
reproach on their father, but the simple truth — infinitely more
expressive of the wrong he has suffered than any violence or
invective. All that has blessed him, he traces unfailingly to Goci.
The whole of his address, from the 5th to the 13th verse of Gen.
xxxi., demands attention from its revealing so much more con
cerning Laban's real conduct to his nephew, and in what manner
that conduct was regarded and overruled by the Eternal, than
we can learn by the bare narration of the previous chapter.
Our present subject forbids our lingering on it, except to say, it
completely absolves Jacob from all fraudulent dealings with his
uncle, while it reveals that he himself was the victim'of deceit.

The mandate of God was in Jacob's ear, and every emotioi)
of humanity was urging him to tarry not, but to flee at once.
Lie had dominion over all his household, yet he waits to impart

PERIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 123

nis wishes and his fears to his wives : he will make no step in
advance without their concurrence; thus at once proving his
love and their equality. And, without a moment's hesitation,
Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, " Is there yet any
portion or inheritance for us in our father's house ? Are we not
accounted of him as strangers ? for he hath sold us, and has quite
devoured our money For all the riches which God has taken
trom our father, that is ours and our children's. Now then,
whatsoever God hath said unto thee do."

Different as the sisters were in disposition, and placed in a
situation most likely to create discord and disunion, yet when
the interests of a beloved husband are at stake, they act in per
fect unity and love. There is no " mine and thine" — words how
often fraught with discord — but simply " ours and our children's."
Seeking even to reconcile him yet more to his flight — enriched
as he was — by stating the simple fact, that Laban had tailed in
his duty towards them, by giving them neither portion nor
inheritance ; and by having sold them to Jacob for fourteen
years of labor. That which God then had marked as Jacob's
share of the flocks and herds, was but their right and their
children's.

Yet it must have been a trial to both sisters to remove so
hastily and unexpectedly with their young children from the
home of their earliest years, without even bidding farewell to the
parent they had loved so long, to their brothers and their
friends, to venture on a strange and dangerous track to a land
they knew not, save that it was far away from their childhood's
home. We already know where Leah's affliction always led her,
and are, therefore, justified in believing that now, as before,
prayer was the soother of her natural sorrows, and her confidence,
that even if her father pursued them, he would not be permitted
to work them harm. But Rachel could not thus realize the ever
present, ever protecting arm of the Eternal ; and, as before she
had sought human means to further her impatient wishes, so
now does she bear away with her secretly " the images which
were her father's ;" superstitiously believing, according to some
commentators, that by consulting them, Laban would discover
their route, and so be enabled to follow and arrest them. It is
scarcely possible to peruse the history of these two sisters with
out being struck with the beautiful unity and harmony displayed
in their two characters — distinct from first to last, and each pre
6

124 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

serving her individual peculiarities. Thrown back upon herself
from wanting the attractions of beauty and vivacity granted to
her younger sister, Leah's graces expanded inwardly and spiri
tually ; her yearning affections always strongest from never
finding vent by being called for and appreciated by man.
Rejoicingly and gratefully acknowledging and believing the
blessed religion which told her of an unchanging Friend and
most tender loving Father, she found in such belief enough, and
could realize content in the midst of trial, happiness in the midst
of grief. Such a character as Leah's, from the time she is
revealed to us, so perfectly free from all wrong feelings in a situa
tion so likely to excite them, is not natural to woman ; snd we
may, therefore, infer that her youth had had its trials, which the
grace of God had blessed, in making her rise from them the
gentle, enduring, lovable being which His word reveals.

The faults of Rachel originated in the very cause which had
been a chastening to her sister. Her own surpassing loveliness,
while ever the theme of admiration to her fellows, so raised her
in her own estimation, that it was difficult to look beyond this
world, where she reigned pre-eminent, to another, where she, in
all her beauty, was but an atom — a creature of the dust. What
to her was the love and protection of an Invisible Being, when
she was so surrounded by the love and care of man ? What to
her needed the tale of future happiness ? Was she not joyous
and laughter-loving the livelong day ? With power in herself
to bend all hearts, and direct all circumstances to the furtherance
of her own impetuous will ? Such we must believe the youth
of Rachel, when we see her repining that children were granted
to her sister and not to her. We behold her secretly bearing
away the gods of her father — whether from the reason mention
ed above, or from her own lingering belief in their efficacy and
power, still equally reprehensible in the wife of Jacob.

If, indeed, Rachel supposed that in removing the images she
prevented her father from discovering their route, she very
speedily found herself mistaken. Jacob had stolen " away
unawares from Laban the Syrian, in that he told him not that he
fled; so he fled with all that he had, and he rose up, and
passed over the river, and set his face toward the mount
Oilead." And there, seven days after their hasty flight, Laban
overtook him with all his kindred, and sufficient followers " to
do them hurt," " Had not the God of your father," he said,

PERIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 125

* spake unto me yesternight, saying, Take thou heed that thou
speak not to Jacob good or bad."

Anxiouslj7 and fearfully, according to their different charac
ters, must Leah and Rachel have awaited the issue of the
conference. The number of followers argued ill ; yet the words
of Laban were at first but mild reproach. " Wherefore didst
thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and didst not
tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth and with
songs, with tabret and with harp : and hast not suffered me to
kiss my sons and daughters ? Thou hast done foolishly in so
doing."

We may well suppose words as these, being fraught with
self-reproach to affectionate daughters, that they had indeed so
left their father. To Leah his next words, alluding to the
" God of thy father," must have been particularly and gratefully
soothing, lie to whom she prayed was indeed ever around them,
turning aside the wrath of men, forbidding him to arouse wratn
by "speaking either bad or good." Holy writ does not indeed
tell us, that Leah prayed in this instance ; but she who welcomed
the birth of every child with prayer and thanksgiving — who in
no instance had recourse to her father's gods — was not hkely to
forget her husband's God when his protection was so needed
We may be permitted to believe she prayed ; and can we not
imagine the fervor of her grateful thanksgiving when she heard
such words from her father ? And we may all experience this.
There is not one who has addressed the Lord in prayer — the
daily prayer for all things, who can say he has had no answer.
And oh ! who would not realize the glowing of the heart — the
burst of thanksgiving which fills it — when we trace his hand in
the daily events of life, and feel that that which we have asked
for lie has given ? But to realize this, we must come to Him
in all things. We must pray to Him in our hearts as well as
with our lips ; we must think individual prayer as well as those
public petitions framed for us. We must be in the constant
habit of tracing all things to His almighty hand, and believe that
his love is as deep, as pitying, for us individually, as his bounty
is shown throughout the world. We must so commune with
Him, that the hours of prayer will feel but the continuation,
not the commencement and end of devotion. Did we but do
this — bring before Him every care, and thought, and grief, and
joy, and doubt, arid thankfulness — how many, many instauca*

126 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

of answered prayer would the briefest life recall. Then, oh
how can we keep Him far from us, by withholding from Him
the wishes which He alone has power to grant, the sorrows
which He alone has compassion sufficient to heal ?

On Rachel's ear, the words which filled her sister's heart with
deepest thankfulness must have fallen little heeded, while those
which followed them, utterly meaningless to Leah, must have
been fraught to her with wildest terror, fearfully increased by
the instant answer of her husband : — " And now, though thou
wouldst needs be gone, because thou sore longedst after thy
father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods ? And
Jacob answered and said (in reply to Laban's previous words of
reproach), Because I was afraid, for I said, peradventure thou
wouldst take by force thy daughters from ine." And then,
with regard to the last accusation : " With whomsoever thou
findest thy gods let him not live. Before our brethren discover
what is thine, and take it to thee. For Jacob knew not that
Rachel had stolen them."

That she had concealed the theft from her husband proves
at once that she knew the feelings dictating it were wrong, yet
had not sufficient moral courage to resist them. And now
tvhat must have been her terrors ? Not only was the plan
which she had adopted to prevent a hostile meeting between
her father and husband, apparently about to be the very means
of dissension, but if discovered, Jacob's own lips had pronounced
her death-doom. We know not if in the patriarchal times
death was usually the punishment awarded to criminals convicted
of theft ; but it is evident that Jacob fully intended the criminal
in his household to suffer even death for his offence, by the
sacred historian so expressly declaring that " Jacob knew not
that Rachel had stolen them." How could he suspect the wife
of his bosom — his best beloved — of such theft as might almost
convict her of idolatry !

Little did he dream whom he was condemning, or the misery
he would have drawn upon himself, had not the God who had
promised to bring him to his father's home in peace, here inter
posed, and saved both him, and for his sake, and the sake of
His own great name, the faulty Rachel.

Yet during the period of Laban's search for the images, till
the danger of discovery was quite past, how terrible must have
oeen her alarm, and how painful her emotions ! How different

PERIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 127

from the meek quietude of a holy spirit, at peace with itself and
its God, which throughout this interview was Leah's ! Yet no
doubt, true to the contrarieties of imperfect humanity, when
discovery was averted, and Laban found not the gods, Rachel
only kit penetrated with pious gratitude, and resolved to keep
her fault more strictly secret from her husband than ever.
Some commentators, I believe, accuse her of an inclination to,
if not of direct, idolatry ; but we do not think that Eloly Writ
sufficiently authorizes such a charge. Superstition, the remains
of childhood's tales, which urged her to the course of acting
with regard to the images already dilated upon, is not in the
least incompatible with her recognition of, and belief in, Jacob's
God, even though the images remained with her until Jacob
bade them "put away the strange gods that were amongst
them," nearly seven years afterwards. As his household con
sisted only of those who had lived with Laban he might easily
have supposed the strange gods theirs, and Rachel had thus an
opportunity of resigning them, without causing her husband the
suffering it would have been, to suspect her of having either
stolen them at first, or harbored them so long.

There is something very beautiful in Laban's parting care of
his daughters, when the somewhat warm recrimination between
himself and Jacob was at an end. The heap of stones was
raised by all who had met in wrath, proving their reunion by
their united labor, and the feast which all shared in harmony
when the work was concluded. " And Laban said, This heap
Ls a witness between thee and me. Therefore was the name of
it called Gilead and Mizpah, for he said, the LORD watck
between me and thee when we are absent one from another.
If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take wives
beside my daughters (though no man is with us), see God is witness
betwixt thee and me. This heap be my witness, and this pillar
be my witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and
thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me for
harm. The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, and the God
of thy father judge betwixt us. And Jacob swore by the fear
of Lis father Isaac. And Jacob offered sacrifices on the mount,
and called his brethren to eat bread ; and they did eat bread,
and tarried all night in the mount. And early in the morning
Laban rose up, and kissed his sons (i. e. grandsons) and daugh

128 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

ters, and bles&ed them ; and Laban departed, and returned unto
his place."

Thus were angry feelings calmed and soothed by a mutual
covenant of love. While to the wives of the one, and the
daughters of the other, how thrice blessed must have been the
reconciliation which gave them again the dear privilege of a
father's loving kiss and parting blessing ! We learn too, from
this simple narrative, that even in the East, a multiplicity of
wives was decidedly not lawful, and that Laban considered the
rights of his daughters would be infringed, and so call upon
him to come forward in their defence, even to break the cove
nant of peace, did Jacob take any other wives. Human nature
is indeed the same in all ages — for as Laban spake to Jacob
thousands and thousands of years ago, so would a father now.
As truly as the Bible reveals the truth, the beneficence, the
tenderness of God — so truly does it reveal and answer every
emotion of the human heart.

As our task is a record only of Leah the wife of Jacob, we
must pass lightly over the events of the xxxii. and xxxiii. chap
ters of Genesis, which belong exclusively to the history of the
patriarch himself. The wrath of man was again turned aside,
and the blessing of the Lord made Jacob at peace even with
his brother Esau. His doubts and fears, which must have
extended painfully to the weaker nature of his wives, at news
of Esau's armed approach, were subdued by the influence of his
prayer, and the long separated brothers met in mutual tenderness
and love. They did not, however, long remain together. Jacob
and his family proceeded to Succoth, and then to Shechem,
where he " bought a parcel of a field," after erecting his tents,
and " built there an altar," and there remained, till commanded
by the Lord to " arise and go to Bethel."

The period of these sojournings between his departure from
Padan-Ararn, to his proceeding to Bethel, must have been full
seven years. The then tender ages of his younger children, and
the number of his flocks and herds, in all probability prompted
him to settle his residence in the first convenient spot in the
land of Canaan. It appears strange that he did not pursue his
way without any pause to his father's house ; but it is one of
those subjects on which the word of God gives us no informa
tion, and therefore may be dismissed without wasting time and

PERIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 129

thought on what can be only speculation. At Shechem, Leah
must have encountered indeed a fiery trial in the insult offered
to her daughter, and the guilty conduct of her sons — Simeon
and Levi. Here, as elsewhere, Jacob was punished by deception,
causing fear an 1 trouble, as he justly says : " Ye have troubled
me to°make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land,
among the Canaanites and Perizzites, and I being few in num
ber, they shall gather themselves against me, and slay me, and
I shall be destroyed, I and my household."

But though punished for the sin of his youth by mortal
anxieties and fears continually darkening around him — the God
of his father Abraham, mindful of His gracious promise to that
holy man, still watched over Jacob, and relieved him from
threatening danger by commanding him to go to Bethel
and build' an altar there. The patriarch without hesitation
obeyed— first purifying his household of all strange gods ; — and
when " they journeyed, the terror of God was upon the cities
that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the
BOUS of Jacob." Then, as now, punishment fell not at once
upon the sinning ones. They were preserved to work out their
own chastisement in furthering the will of their God.

At Bethel. God again appeared unto the patriarch, and not
only reiterated the promise made to his fathers and to himself,
but confirmed the change of name from Jacob to Israel ; that
holy and blessed name which was to descend through thousands
and thousands of ages, associated for ever with the mercy and
the love and the glory of the Lord — given by the Eternal ; a
mark of especial favor from the King of kings, expressing that
as a Prince our father Jacob had power with God and with
man, and had prevailed. Is there, can there be one amongst
the descendants of this prince of God's creating, ashamed of the
name he bears ? Should it not be our glory, our pride — of
which no persecution, no injury, no wrong can rob us ? Does
not its very sound teem with the wondrous mercies of the past
— with the truth, the unanswerable truth of revelation ? What
^corner, what sceptic can point the finger of doubt or denial at
the Bible — while that name is yet heard in every corner of the
globe, borne by the very descendants of him, on whom by God
himself it was* bestowed ? The watchword, the banner of our
cause, recognised as such in every nation, every land — the man
or woman who feels ashamed to call himself of ISRAEL, flings scorn

i30 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

upon his God. Cheered and consoled by this renewed blessing
of God, Jacob proceeded on his journey, advancing southward
in the direction of Harare, where Isaac his father then was.

Ephrah was nearly reached, when the sudden illness of
Rachel compelled the whole cavalcade to halt — and Jacob must
have beheld with inexpressible anguish his best beloved wife
torn from him, at the very moment she had increased his joy
and her own by giving birth to a second son. When in the
midst of bodily and mental anguish, she called his name Benoni,
son of my sorrow, did she think of her own impatient words —
" Give me children, or else I die !" and feel that it would have
been better for her to have waited for the Lord ? How may we
answer ? Enough for us to benefit by the record vouchsafed,
and feel His will is better than our own — and in impatient rest
less longings for blessings granted to another, we may know,
that even in the very fulfilment of the wish, the punishment may
fall.

Rachel committed no fault in wishing for a child — her fault
had been envy and its subsequent discontent. Years had
passed, the very recollection of her restless discontent may have
faded from her mind, but not from His whom she had by want
of faith and gratitude offended. In His infinite mercy He for
gave, He blessed, for He called her to Himself ere the evil days
came, and her beloved one was sold by his brethren, and report
ed for long long years as dead. He saved the mother this deep
suffering, but, in His justice towards her and love to her descend
ants, He chastised by an early and painful death, the most trying
separation of soul and body which human nature (so to speak)
may know. Her husband, her Joseph — her new-born — sud
denly and fearfully the silver links of love, binding her to all of
these, were snapt asunder, and she might know her place on
earth no more. " Give me children, or else I die." Alas ! the too
impatient cry was heard and answered; children were bestowed,
and with them death. How little knew she what she asked !
In all her surpassing loveliness, in the full possession of most
faithful love, the destroying angel came and snatched her from
this world. Oh ! will not this teach us to be content with what
God has given, and restrain us from looking with secret envy on
the richer (in seeming) blessings of another ? Will it not bid us
beware of seeking aught of good only because it belongs to a
companion, or because we fancy we have equal right to its

PERIOD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 131

possession, by the lesson that, even were it ours, we might have
no power to enjoy it ? Death, indeed, may not come between
us and its enjoyment; but that which we have coveted loses its
value the moment we possess it. Will not the warm young
heart shrink from the very anticipation of the sin towards God
and man which discontent may bring? Let us think more of
our sorrowing and afflicted fellow-creatures, and less of those
more blessed in outward seeming. Did we think on the
bereaved, the physically afflicted, the poor, how could we still
retain discontent of our own lot, or envy of our fellow-creatures ?
And oh ! if no other reasoning will avail, let us remember, our
God is not only a merciful, tender Father, but a just and jealous
God, who will one day, we know not when or how, call upon us
to render an account of the blessings He has given ; and if we
know them not, how may we answer ? Long years had passed
since Rachel's offence, yet He who slumbereth not nor sleepeth,
chastised it in the very hour that the wish which caused it was
fulfilled.

It may be asked (as in similar cases of bereavement it, alas ! too
often is), Why, granting that the lot of the departed is blessed
ness, does the God of love so afflict the survivors ? Why did
He cause such deep grief to His favored servant Jacob ? Because
God loved him ; because His omniscience had seen that Rachel
might come between Jacob's heart and his God ; because He
would demonstrate to futurity that, to possess His favor, His
blessing, does not in any manner emancipate us from trial and
Buffering in this world ; because He would lift up our affections
from the narrow limits of this world, He would make His hea
ven a dearer home than our earth, lie would people it with the
immortal spirits of those we have loved on earth, that we may
look upon it no longer as a strange land ; but as the beautiful
country where our beloved are gone, and where we shall follow.
This is wherefore He bereaves, and therefore even in the bereave
ment there is love.

There is no mention of Jacob's grief; yet in the very silence
of Scripture, in some points, there is eloquence, borne out, as in
this case it is, by the deep love he bore towards Joseph and
.Benjamin. What can more exquisitely express th<- intensity of
that love, than when entreated by his sons to let Benjamin
accompany them to Egypt, he answered, " My son shall not go
down with you ; for his brother is dead, and he is left alone : if

132 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

mischief befal him in the way which ye go, then shall ye bring
my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave." " He is left alone," and
yet he had ten brethren — alone of his mother, the patriarch felt
— sole record of that beloved one whom he had lost, and how
might he let him depart ? It is impossible to reflect on Jacob's
intense love for Joseph and Benjamin, without fully imagining
the suffering of their mother's loss. Silent he was, for who
might question the decrees of the Most High ? but faith and love
for our Father in heaven do not forbid us to mourn. We are
placed here to love each other ; and if we love not those with
whom we are in daily, hourly intercourse, how may we love God ?
Without love, earth would be a desert and heaven a void.
^ The death of Leah is not recorded ; we only know that she
did not accompany the patriarch and his family to Egypt, and
that she _ was, buried with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and
Rebekah, in the cave of Machpelah. Left dependent on her ten
derness and love, the extent of which we know, Jacob no doubt
lavished warmer affection upon her, after the death of Rachel
than before. How gratefully her pious heart must have traced
this tranquil calm, which probably closed her days, to her God,
we may infer from the thanksgiving with which every previous
blessing had been received. But, as her future life can only be
suggestion, much as imagination may love to dwell upon it, our
present task must be concluded. We have dilated already at so
much length upon the characters of the sisters, and the instruc
tion and consolation therein developed, that we need add littlo
further now, except to notice what has always appeared a remark
able manifestation of the perfect equality of the sisters in their
position as mothers of that race which is to last for ever. Ten
tribes are lost — not to be discovered till the day which will
behold the glorious and stupendous miracle of our restoration.
The two which remain to bear witness to the mercy and justice
of the Eternal, and the truth of His word, are JUDAH, the
descendants of LEAH, and BENJAMIN, the descendants of RACHEL,
from one or other of which every Israelite (except the represen
tatives of the Levites, who were accounted the priests of the
Lord, not of the twelve tribes) traces his descent.

Shall we then dismiss the beautiful record of Leah and Rachel,
which the word of God contains, as a mere relation, concerning
an age so long past as to appear almost fabulous and obsolete ?
Shall we not rather take it to our hearts, and, as women of

PER/OD I. LEAH AND RACHEL. 133

Israel, feel it is of our own ancestry we read ? Shall we not
emulate the much enduring piety of Leah ; and in all our afflic
tions — even in that of a lone and unloved heart — turn to her
God, and emulate her rejoicing acknowledgment of blessings at
His hand 1 Shall we not take warning of the loved and lovely
Rachel, and feel that neither beauty nor love — the dearest love
of man — can afford us happiness and joy, unless both are traced
to, and held from the grace of God ? That not in outward
attraction — not even in human love — can blessedness exist, unless
the vital spark, to give them rest and life and continuance, hath
dwelling within, to lift up the whole soul to God. O better —
far better — homeliness of form and face, with a guileless con
tented heart. Better — far better — a heart desolate of earthly
sympathy, with the love of our Father in heaven, than beauty
and grace and human love, the fullest, dearest, combined with
every worldly blessing — if these be sufficient for our need, nud
we pass through life without one thought of God.

OF THE FIRST PERIOD,

SECOND PERIOD

CHAPTER T.

EGYPTIAN CAPTIVITY AND JOCHEBEU.

WE are now to commence the second period of our history—
an interval, differing materially from that which went before,
and from that which will succeed it, yet of vital importance to
the women of Israel. Their station is no longer to depend upon
the changes of time and states. The protection, tenderness,
reverence, and support, which in their varied relations of life
they so imperatively need, no longer rest on the will of man
alone : the God of Abraham proclaims Himself their Guardian
and their Father, and, by innumerable statutes in His Holy
Law, provides for their temporal and eternal welfare equally
with that of man.

^ The mother, the wife, the daughter, the maid-servant, the
widow, and the fatherless — for each and all, His love and mercy
so provided, that every social and domestic duty became obedi
ence unto Him, and woman was thus raised to that rank in the
scale of intellectual and immortal beings, by the ordinance of
God, from which her weakness of frame and gentle delicacy of
mind would, had she depended on man's judgment alone, have
entirely deprived her.

For the women of Israel were those laws issued which were to
guard the innocence, purity, honor, and well-doing of woman in
general throughout the world ; for, however other revelations
may profess to be the first and purest, however the smile of
scorn and unbelief may attend the mention of the Jewish dis
pensation in conjunction with woman, the truth remains the
same, that as from that law every other sprang, so from that
law does woman in every age, clime, rank, and race, receive her
guardianship on earth, and hope of heaven.

PERIOD II. JOCHEBED. 135

That this assertion will meet with scorn and denial on all
sides, we believe— perchance even from those whom nationality
and duty both, should arouse to its defence. Yet firmly and
unhesitatingly we retain the position we have advanced, prepared
to defend it* from the same blessed Book on which it is founded -
the Word of God. Much has been said of the wide distinc
tion between ancient and modern Judaism, of Talmudical per
versions of Holy Writ, of Jewish degradation of woman, and a
melancholy list of similar accusations. With them we neither
have nor intend to have anything to do, save boldly to assert,
that IF there be this wide distinction between ancient and mo
dern Judaism — IF customs and laws derogatory to God's
changeless truth, and contrary to His holy Word, have crept in
amongst us, — the dark and bloody eras of persecution are at
fault, not the ancient fathers, who knew how to die for the.r
faith, but not to sully or degrade it. And it behoves us, in this
blessed age of peace and this land of freedom, to prove the fal
sity of the charge, to awake and manifest to all men, that tb*
religion of the Jew is the religion of Moses, as given by tJta
Lord ; and that if laws have crept in contrary to the spirit am<
the ordinances of his word, they are not Judaism, but the rero
nants of an age of barbarism and darkness, when that pure arul
holy word was almost death to read. Oh! why has not Israe
joined heart and hand in this holy cause ? Why has he not
borne, in charity and patience, with those who differ from him
in minor points, and thought only how, by union, harmony, an<*.
love, he could exalt his nation and his faith in the sight of th»«
Gentile world, and prove that, however close and binding mav
be the casket, the jewel it enshrines is still the revelation of th< •
Lord, the religion of the Bible ?

But our present task has not to do with the nation and Juda
ism at large ; it is simply to prove to the women of Israel the}*
position in the sight of God, and their duties towards man
The intricacies of the law, as commented upon and explained by
our ancient fathers, are not for us. Woman needs only corn
fort, strength, and guidance, so simply yet so clearly given, tha*
a little child may read and understand them ; and these are
ours, alike in the records of our female ancestors and in the pre
eepts of the Lord.

Hitherto we have been regarding His love, mercy, and jus
tice, as manifested to individuals ; deriving lessons from exatr.

/36 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

pie, and guidance from the Eternal's dealings with His crea
tures. Recorded in His book, we know that their lives arc now
intended for our instruction and benefit, or they would not have
been written. But God knew that something yet more was
needed, for the religious training and well doing of His elected
people ; something more than the mere history of the past,
bright as that was with the wonderful manifestations of His
presence in direct communings with His saints ; — and for the
love He bore His faithful servant Abraham, it pleased Him to
bring from the deepest darkness the purest light, and vouchsafed
a law which was to last for ever, and through which not alone
His chosen but every nation should be blessed.

From the death of Joseph to a short time preceding the birth
of Moses, Holy Writ is silent as to the history of the Israelites,
both individually and nationally, except the important truth that
" they were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied
and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with
them." Though no law had been given, they were still, it is
evident, a completely distinct people, retaining a pure religion in
the midst of barbarous idolatry. With no ordained worship — •
no revealed ordinances — no appointed sacrifice, or priest; stil.
they were the elect and beloved of the Lord, requiring no medi
ator, either angelic or human, to bring .up their prayers before
God, and render them acceptable. Yet God not only " heard
their cry, but had respect unto them." This is a point in our
history too important to be overlooked, though it concerns Israel
generally, not the women of Israel alone. It is very often
brought forward as a proof, that we must now be wholly re
jected by the Lord, because the daily sacrifice has ceased, and
many parts of the law, obligatory upon us in our own land, are
scarcely possible to be observed in our captivity — the cessation
of sacrifices and atonement offerings especially are perpetually
insisted upon, as proving that unless we acknowledge the aton
ing sacrifice of Jesus, and regard him as our High Priest, wo
ire lost temporally and eternally.

The simple fact that the Israelites in Egypt had neither sacri
fice nor high priest, though the former was already ordained,
yet were still a distinct people, still the first-born of the Lord,
and had power to lift up their cry to Him, and be heard, com
passionated, and answered, is a sufficiently convincing answer.
Israel is now, and has been for eighteen hundred years, as he

PERIOD II. JOCHEBED

131

was in Egypt, with the sole difference, that there we were not
the captives of the Lord as we are now ; nor had we then a law
to guide us, and by obedience prove repentance. ( We are now
rfultillino- the prophecy, that " Israel shall abide many days with-

i out priest or sacrifice," etc. (Hosea iii. 4) : but the same blessed
'-word which foretells this, says not one word of our being utterly
cast off, but repeatedly enforces the divine consolation, that we
have but to cry unto the Lord, even from the lands of our cap
tivity, to be heard and compassionated as we were in Egypt.
^We have no need of sacrifice, when God Himself ordained that
it should cease; I nor can we have the head of the nation, alike
of its religious, civil, and even military divisions, while scattered
in every quarter of the globe. 'Were we to accept Jesus, in his
blended character of sacrifice, atoner, and high priest, the pro
phecies would all remain unfulfilled ;)as we should still possess
all these, instead of being, as the prophet so expressly declared,
deprived during our captivity of " king, prince, sacrifice, image,
ephod, and terephim," Hosea iii. 4.

-^ To Israel in Egypt they were not given ; to Israel in her
lengthened captivity they have ceased, until she be purified and
chastened sufficiently to receive once again the visible manifes
tation of the Lord's acceptance, their constant attendant, and
which was forfeited by our rebellion. Yet still, even as in
Egypt, we are the first-born of the Lord, and have nationally and
individually, equal access to His compassionating love.

A new king had arisen in Egypt ; one who knew not Joseph,
and saw only in the Israelites, a people harmless indeed in
employments and pursuits, but sufficiently mighty in numbers
to arouse the jealous fears of tyranny : and the commandment
went forth to afflict them, by weighty tasks and heavy burdens.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and
orew ; and, in consequence, heavier and heavier grew their
afflictions, till at length the fatal command was given to destroy
every male child at its birth. Yet even this was overruled by
a merciful God. The hearts of the women designed for this
barbarous office were in His hand, and he so softened them
into tenderness and compassion that the innocent babes were
saved by the very means adopted for their destruction. Finding
this scheme unavailing, Pharaoh issued another command more
fatal than the first, for it seemed not in the power of man to
evade or counteract it. And in the power of man it was not ,

138 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

God alone could bring forth delivery; and therefore did He
permit the deepest darkness to close around his people, that
both they and the Egyptians might know the power to redeem,
and the love to accomplish it, were in Him alone.
r The situation of the women of Israel, at this period, must
vhave been terrible indeed. Their infants, born in the midst of
sorrow, yet hailed, perhaps, as the sole blessing which they
could call their own, snatched from them by ruthless murderers,
and flung into the Nile. And where were they to look for
redress — for pity ? Where but to their God^and " He heard
their groaning ;" and from this very desolation raised up His"
own.

The family of Amram, a son of Levi, already consisted of
himself, his wife, a little son of three years old, and an elder
daughter. The birth of Aaron must have leen attended with
heavy sorrow from the tyrannical oppression under which his
father and the other Israelites labored ; but dark as was that
hour, it must have been almost joyous compared with the awful
trial awaiting his mother now. About to add another little one
to their family, how agonizingly must the shriek of torture,
wrung from her sisters in Israel — marking every fresh assault
of the Egyptians within their houses, in search of their babes —
have sounded in her ears ? Day after day, night after night,
one or other dwelling of the miserable Hebrews was searched ;
and ransacked, if no child were found. Voices of cursing
and mockery mingled with the wild entreaties for mercy — the
scream of agony — the wailing moan of impotent suffering — the
feeble wail of helpless infancy — the sullen splash, that told the
work of butchery done ; — such must have been the sight and
sounds around the home of Jochebed, as she awaited in trem
bling horror that day which must expose her to the same. It
came at length, and a fair lovely babe was born — a boy — whose
first wailing cry, if it reached the ears of the Egyptian butchers,
would be his death-knell. But the prayers of the mother had
not been in vain. [Her God was with her, endowing her with
wisdom and energy sufficiently effectual to conceal her boy three
months. But then, danger once more approached. Suspicions
bad either been excited, or the increasing age and size of the
child rendered the task of concealment no longer possible.
Fearful must have been the struggle of natural terrors and
spiritual confidence, filling the mother's mind, ere the plan she

PERIOD II. JOCHEBED. 139

eventually followed was matured and executed. Faith aione in
a God of infinite compassion could have inspired a mode of
proceeding apparently so fraught with danger, as herself to
expose her babe to the deep and dangerous current of the river ;
but even while faith impelled, and at times soothed, by the firm
conviction that her God would save, natural affections and
human fears must often have had the ascendant, breathing but
of danger and of death. The future was veiled in impenetrable
darkness. The fate of her child, even if his slender ark bore him
in safety on the waters, must be one of suffering, or perhaps of
starvation — for who would give him food ? Did she do right
to expose him thus ? If he were to be saved, would not the
Eternal equally accomplish it without this fearful venture?
Such would be mere human reasoning in woman's feeble aeart.
/But prayer gave her the needful grace and strength to listen
\ only to the immortal spirit, and trust undoubtirigly in God.
V Can we not picture the anxious throbbings of maternal affection
as her own hand weaved the ark or basket of bulrushes, in
which her babe was to be exposed ? Would not merely earthly
natures have smiled in scorn on this feeble invention, and
pronounced it futile ? But the mother of Moses had not such
to increase the difficulty of her task, ller husband^s name is
never mentioned in this proceeding ; for Amram, as the
remainder of his miserable brethren, was in all probability too
much weighed down and spirit-broken by their multiplied
afflictions, to think of the inmates of his home, save with
increased affliction and despondency ; nay, had perchance closed
his heart against all love for his new-born, believing it was des
tined, as every other, for immediate death. He could have had
no time to watch over it, and share his wife's anxieties. To his
mother alone, therefore, under the especial providence of God,
did Moses owe his preservation.

The ark was completed. Gifted with unusual foresight and
wisdom for the task, Jochebed carefully daubed it with slime
and pitch, that no water should penetrate within ; and with
trembling yet still trusting spirit, placed her babe therein, and
laid it on the flags by the river's brink. To watch what would
be done with it — whether it would rest there till some compas
sionating passer-by should behold and save him, or be indeed
launched on the waters and carried from her sight — was indeed

140 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

a task too fearful for maternal love. We may pjcture^with
perfect truth and justice, her last lingering kiss pressed upon the
lips, cheek, and brow of the unconscious babe ; her waiting till
sleep closed those beauteous eyes, which, in their pleading gaze,
seemed to her fond heart beseeching her not so cruelly to aban
don him — waiting till slumber, light, pure, beautiful, as only
infancy can know, lay upon those sweet features, those rounded
limbs — making them seem like some folded flower, waiting but
.he return of clay to brighten into renewed and still lovelier
existence. Would that day ever dawn for that sweet uncon
scious slumberer on earth ? Alas ! how may she answer ?
N^Her look deepens in its silent anguish — its immeasurable love.
Faith seems departing in that intensity of human feeling; sh^
will look no more, lest indeed it fail. The light lid closes softly
over the sleeping babe. She lays it amidst the flowering flags
— looks once, once more. Does the infant moan or weep?
How may she leave it, if it does ? No : all is silent, voiceless —
the boy still sleeps — and she hurries from the spot — bids Miriam
stand " afar off," yet near enough " to know what would be done
with him." And for herself? — where, where shall she find rest,
from the anxiety and suffering of that fearful hour ? Where, but
at the footstool of her God, in whose gracious hand she has placed
her babe ? What could calm that heart but prayer ? And how

Tcan we doubt one moment that to the MOTHER of MOSES prayer

\ was her whole support, strength, and life ?

Holy writ is silent as to the length of time which elapsed ere
Pharaoh's daughter " came down to wash at the river ; and her
maidens walked along by the river's side, and when she saw the
ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when
she had opened it, she saw the child : and, behold, the babe
wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is
one of the He )rews' children." How exquisitely true and touch
ing is this picture of human nature ! The simple words, " and,
behold, the babe wept," even in reading, seem to fill woman's
heart with a gush of tears. The utter helplessness, the innocence,
the beauty of the poor babe, seem to cling to our affections, as
if he were entwined with them by stronger ties than mere narra
tion. And is he not ? What woman of Israel can read this
touching narrative unmoved ? " The babe wept ;" and, true to
nature, Pharaoh's daughter had compassion on him. Cold, tor

PERIOD II. JOCHEBED. 141

-ified, hungry, the poor infant might have been weeping long in
his bulrush prison ; but those tears, sad as they were to him,
obtained his human preservation.

The compassion of the princess emboldened Miriam to go for
ward, and respectfully to ask, " Shall I go and call to thee a
nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for
thee ?" An address which would almost make us believe that
the compassionate and gentle character of the tyrant's daughter
must have been known to the Hebrews, or the young Miriam
would scarcely have had sufficient courage so to have spoken.
This, however, must be suggestion ; the inspired nariauve only
enforces upon us the hand of God throughout. The same God
who inspired Rebekah unconsciously to speak those words which
answered the steward's prayer, and elected her for Isaac's wife,
also inspired the youthful daughter of Amram to come forward
and speak such words to the" princess of Egypt, as, at another
time, she would have trembled to utter even in thought.

" And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid
went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter
said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I
will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and
nursed it."

What must have been the emotions of Jochebed, thus to clasp
again to her heart her rescued treasure ! Not alone saved from
present death, but future suffering and labor — re-stored to her"
maternal bosom, to receive thence not only his necessary infant
! nourishment, but such lessons of his father's God and his breth-
| ren's faitu as would render him invulnerable to the temptations
and idolatry of the Egyptian court. Her emotions in parting
from her child we might try to picture ; but on those which
must have attended his rescue, his restoration, silence is most
eloquent. How had not her simple trusting faith been reward
ed ! How clearly, how startlingly had the hand of the Eternal
been displayed ! And how could she prove the grateful devoted-
ness of her overflowing heart, save by devoting the child His
love had saved unto His service ? Not even poverty and priva
tion had she to encounter. While her brethren were enduring
the heaviest burdens from cruel taskmasters, she v\as receiving
wages from the princess of Egypt for the nurture of her own
tliild ; and well may we believe those wages were devoted to the

142 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

needy and the suffering — from her who in the midst of natural
sorrow must have felt herself individually so blessed.

" And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's
daughter, and he became her son."" But it was in tliose years
V'he had passed with his own mother his character had been
formed ; his principles were fixed ; his religion obtained living
j and breathing, and ever-actuating influence. We know not the
] age at which he left his mother, but we must infer, from all that
b narrated of him, that her influence, not that of his adopted
parent, made him what he was. No lessons of Pharaoh's daugh
ter could have endowed him with that feeling of patriotism
which bade him rise up against the Egyptian who was smiting
an Israelite, or interfere between the two Israelites, endeavoring
meekly to restore peace. Had his early instruction beeb cun-
fined to Pharaoh's palace, his very birth and race would have
been unknown ; he would have imbibed only such principles as'
actuated the Egyptians, and could not fail to hav», bowed down
to their idols. Some very powerful influence mus* have been at
work counteracting these evils ; and what influence is so great/
over the susceptible age of infancy as that of mother or nurse.?;
and Jochebed combined both these endearing relations. Eveii
after the actual task of nursing was accomplished, " and the
child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter," it
/'appears to me more than probable that she was still retained
Vjiear the person of her child, tending him even after he was call
ed the princess's son ; and thus had frequent opportunities of
inculcating those divine truths which, though no law was yet
given, the past history of his people so vividly revealed.
7 That Moses makes no further mention of his parents is no
' .joroof of such idea being but fancy. Of everything concerning
himself he writes so slightly, so evidently imagining his personal
history of no possible consequence, compared with the mighty
and solemn matters intrusted to him, that it was not likely the
days of his childhood should be recalled and dwelt upon. Nay,
< he himself might have been perfectly unconscious to what influ-
\ ence he actually owed his peculiar feelings as an Israelite, his
gentle lovely virtues as a man. The work of a mother is silent
:. and unseen as dew upon the earth : — the seed must be planted,
watched, watered, but unless spared to behold it springing into
\flower, the hand of the planter may for ever rest unknown

PERIOD IT. JOOHEBED. 143

Jochebed was parted from her son, years before this blessed
reward could have been given ; his childhood alone was hers.
Ills youth, his manhood, when the seed she had sown might
have" repaid her with abundant harvest, were passed, the one in
all the temptations, the luxuries of an Egyptian court; the
jtl.er in exile — the lowly shepherd of his father-in-law, a priest
)f Midian, — apart even from hi* countrymen. It does not
appear that his parents were among those who left Egypt, or
their names would have been mentioned with the other relatives
of Moses. Jochebed had not the privilege of beholding the
sniritual and temporal greatness of her rescued boy ; but had
the seed of her sowing withered ? Were her counsels vain ?
Can we not trace in the peculiarly gentle, much-forgiving
character of our lawgiver, the moulding of a woman's hand ?
Is there auu'ht to prove the minion of a court, the favorite of a,
princess? No, O no. The whole character of Moses displays
a mother's guidance. A mother's love watching over childhood,
and inculcating those high and glowing principle* of virtue and
patriotism, which the blessing of the Eternal ripened into such
a beautiful maturity, as to render Moses a fit instrument in Ilia
hand to lead His chosen people from the land of bondage, and
to reveal His changeless law.

And what will "not this beautiful narrative teach us? As
Jochebed, we too are in a land of bondage ; indeed, in free and
happy England, not a bondage of suffering and persecution, but
yet as exiles from our own land, and, alas ! too often, exiles '
from our God. We too are in a land of strangers, whose faith
is not ours ; a faith which, though it be not idolatry, is fraught —
with yet more temptation and danger. In this blessed land, no
cruel taskmaster afflicts us with heavy burdens ; yet there are
some to look upon us with scorn and hate, who would strew
our daily path with the thorns and briers of contempt, calumny^
and abuse ; and others again who, with kindly yet mistaken
zeal, would appal us by the vivid recital of the fearful precipice
on which we stand, telling us that but one escape is left us, one
only way, or we are temporally and eternally lost ; and that
way no Israelite can recognise. Yet fearful are the temptations
to seek it, and few, too few, his weapons of defence. Worldly
rank and worldly honors are closed to the believing Hebrew,
and wherever he turns he feels himself a stranger.

Blest in this land with ueace and freedom, yet, e\er and

144 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

anon, the low growl of the tempest of persecution reaches him
from distant shores ; sometimes sinking into silence, ere more
than the heart's quick throbbing is aroused ; at others waxing
louder and more loud, till the wailings of thousands, and the
shrieks of torture, are borne on the heavy air, breathing that
Israel is afflicted still. And wherefore ? "To bid us still feel
we are the captives of the Lord — that Jerusalem lieth desolate
and waste for our sins — that the awful prophecy of the twenty-
"- eighth chapter of Deuteronomy has been, and in many lands
Btill is, in actual fulfilment — that we are now, as we were in
Egypt, afflicted and oppressed — " despised and rejected of men
— a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" — " as one that
gropeth at noon-day, as the blind gropeth in darkness, that
shall not prosper in his ways, that shall only be spoiled and
oppressed evermore, and whom no man shall save."

And if it be so (and who shall say it is not ?), oh ! does it not
^devolve on the mothers of Israel to do even as Jochebed, and
so influence the childhood of their sons, as to render them
indeed faithful to their God, meek and forgiving towards man,
and invulnerable to every temptation held forth by the opposers
of their faith ?

The^very safety we enjoy, the habits of friendly intimacy
which it is right and happy we should cultivate, all call upon
the Hebrew mother to instil those principles in the heart of her
son which shall guide him through life, and, while they raise him
in the estimation of the nations around him, inspire him indi
vidually to glory in his own.

We have enlarged, in a former work, on the duty of mothers
regarding religion generally. We would here conjure them to
follow the example of the mother of Moses, and make their sons
the receivers, and in their turn the promulgators, of that holy
law which is their glorious inheritance. Their faith, in England
may not be tried as that of Jochebed — they may not be called
upon to expose their innocent babes to the dangers of the river,
to save them from the cruelties of man — but they are called upon
/ to provide a suit of defence for riper years. They must so
I instruct, so guide, the first ten or twelve years of boyhood, that
even then they may leave their maternal homes as Israelites
rejoicing in their faith. They must infuse some balsam to heal,
or some invulnerable shield to eject, the arrows of contempt or
pity which, ere they pass through life, they must encounter

PERIOD II. JOCHEBED. 143

ey must so lead, that graver years may conduct them to that
only study, the blessed word of God, which alone can give peaco
to their spirits, rest to their minds, and conviction to their hearts
— alike in their private hours and their communings with the
Nazarene world. This is now the Hebrew mother's task, which
may be blessed to their offspring as Jochebed's was to Moses.
It is for this they must have faith, must trust that God will
perfect that which is imperfect, fill up every deficiency, and bring
the seed to flower, or vain and hopeless will Le their task.
They must impress upon their offspring their SPIRITUAL ARIS
TOCRACY, and so not only remove all temptation to barter their
heavenly heritage for earthly rank, but infuse their minds and
hearts with that nobility of thought, word, and action, which
should be the heir-loom, the glory of every Hebrew, be he of
what rank, profession, or even trade, he may. Persecution and
barbarity in our opposers, and their consequent ignorance and
superstition in ourselves, have for long ages so crushed and
trampled on this innate nobility, that in all but a very few
instances, it seems, and has long seemed, departed from us ; its
banishment stigmatizing us as degraded to the lowest and vilest
of mankind. Can we now then, in those blessed lands where the
I Jew. may walk in freedom, with "none to molest or make him
/ afraid," permit this stigma to remain ? Shall we not rather
wake every energy, string every nerve, to prove that it is not
Jud \isrn, but persecution at fault ; and that wherever the Hebrew
is FREE, he is NOBLE ? That the princely blood of Abraham,
Moses, and David still flows within his veins, and incites him to
thoughts and deeds as far removed from ignorance and degra
dation as the sun is from the earth ?

But not when arrived at manhood can this nobility be
infused. It must be imbibed with the mother's milk, and form
the very atmosphere of childhood and youth. Let every
mother in Israel look upon her infant treasure as direct from the
hand of God, and believe that He saith to her, as the princess
of Egypt said to Jochebed,—" Nurse this child for ME, and 1
will give thee thy wages ;" for HIM, for the LORD, who in every
age, clime, and position, calleth Israel His CHILDREN. And let
her indeed so nurse him, that whenever he may be called to his
Father in Heaven he may be fit to go. Let her, weak and feeble
of herself as she is, remember that with the Lord all things are
possible, and that as He blessed Jochebed in the preservation

/

I

146 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

and nurture of her child, so if we will but blend effort with
prayer, perseverance with faith, He will equally bless us — and
though it may not be ours to rear a deliverer from Egyptian
bondage, yet how will the mothers in Israel rejoice and glory,
to receive " their wages" in the elevation of their nation by their
cons ?

To do this, they must be NOBLE ; and to become so, let the
Hebrew mother teach her boy, from his earliest years, to think
of his heavenly heritage, his spiritual election, his eternal life,
and leave the interests and ambition of earth till riper years,
uhen even these dull sordid cares shall become ennobled and
spiritualized, by the purer atmosphere which he has in his boy
hood breathed. We are not, indeed, while denizens of earth, to
think so exclusively of heaven as to unfit us for the life of trial
and temptation which, in our mortal career, we are commanded
to tread ; but we are to infuse earth with Heaven, time with
Eternity, the soul with GOD. As Israelites, we cannot sever
our temporal from our eternal interests, we cannot fling off the
memory of, and obedience to, the Eternal, for with every single
relation, duty, ordinance, and habit of daily life His commands
are blended. We are not Israelites, if we think to live apart
from Him, or to do aught in which we cannot associate Him by
the entreaty for His blessing, and the looking to Him throughout.
We are not Israelites, if we do not feel our every domestic duty arid
loving tie sanctified by Him, and bringing us nearer, closer, more
lovingly to Him, with every passing month. This is to be an
Israelite — this is to be the aristocracy of the Lord ; for did we
so associate our religion with our lives, we must be NOBLE.
But how can we attain this, how dare we hope it, if the pursuit
of gold, the vain longing for wealth, the idle dream of worldly
aggrandizement, the empty rivalship with those richer and
higher than ourselves, be the sole end, aim, and being of the
'Israelite ? We look with loud condemnation and scorn on the
worshippers of the golden calf — we contemn the worshippers,
more than we tremble at the awful chastisement from the hand
of the Lord — yet let us beware, lest our sons too bow before
the golden idol. It may take no form, we may not approach it
with forms of worship, and priests, and incense, but if it fill up
our hearts to the exclusion of all other and nobler thoughts, if
its pursuit drag us from the house of God, from our own hearths,
deaden us to the love of home ties, prevent the spiritual and

PERIOD II. JOCHEBED. 147

enlarged education of our children, what is it to us but as the
golden calf to the Israelites of old ? And how dare we hope to
be exempt from the chastisement of God, when it fell upon our
brethren ? Oh ! let us not case up our hearts, and pursue our
way in confident security, because it is deferred. God works ^
not now as He did then. Israel, in his redemption from Egypt,
needed constant, visible, and palpable evidences of the provi-_
dence and the justice of the Lord. We have them not to guide /
us now, but their record is ours, in which to learn our duty, and /
the effects of its neglect or disobedience. That which was dis
pleasing to Him then, is displeasing to Him now ; but, scattered
as we are among the nations, deprived through our iniquities of
the visible manifestation of His presence, His approval, and His
wrath, not on earth may our judgment be known ; nor can we
"discern between him that serveth God, and him that serveth
Him not," till that day when " the Lord shall make up His
jewels, and spare those that love Him, as a man spareth his
own son that serveth him."

That the long dark ages of persecution originated that fearfui
indifference to all ennobling pursuits, of which the Hebrew is
accused, we quite acknowledge. Deprived of all honorable and
elevating employment, of every profession, of every trade, which,
bringing them into friendly contact with their fellow-men, would
have enlarged their minds, and awakened social affections;
cowed, crushed, hunted down, and often persecuted for the sake
of their wealth ; deadened, stupefied, to all spiritual elevation,
even as the Israelites in Egypt ; was it marvel they should cling
to gold, and seek its increase, as their sole rank and privilege ?
For them God had compassion, for He knew how they were
tried. It was natural too, that, even when in lands of compa
rative freedom and peace, the habits and associations of past
years should cling pertinaciously to them still. But their
encouragement is no longer guiltless — prosperity, peace, friendly
intercourse with some of the nations, are granted us, that we
may come back with heart and soul unto our holy law, and
strive with all our might against every idol which comes between
us and our God. In England, France, Belgium, and America, it
is no longer persecution and intolerance that degrade and pro- -
oounce us vile. If such feelings do find entrance, it is the
prejudice arising from what we were. They, as is natural, see
not the cause of that past degradation, but let us make it mani

148 THE WOMEN OF I S R A E t, .

fest — let us evince, more and more, that gold is no longer 0111
sole pursuit ; that fraud and cunning, which to the ignorant
Gentile are synonymous with the word Jew, are as far from us
as from them — that when free we too are noble, honorable, and
spiritual to an extent that, if we adhere to our blessed law, only
Israelites can be — and prejudice must pass away, and Israel be
acknowledged the witnesses of the Lord.

It is this noble, this spiritual feeling of independence we
would beseech every Hebrew mother to instil into her boy;
and which we now humbly, yet earnestly, prayerfully, and
heartfully conjure every Hebrew father to aid and confirm. Let
not the ears of the infant Israelite be polluted by reference to
earthly gain and worldly rivalship, but let him hear oi'ten from
his father's lips those sweet lessons of heaven and God — of self-
denial and its blessed reward — of those purer pleasures of
intellect and heart, which, if not infused into his .nfancy, ^an
never find entrance and dominion in after years. Ably and
delightfully would such paternal lessons assist the mother's
task, and lighten the blessed yet exquisitely anxious labor of
teaching their offspring their proper station in the sight of God
and man, and so ennoble, purify, and spiritualize heart and
mind, as to render them fit descendants of the princes, priests,
and prophets from whom they spring.

And let not such parents fear for their sons' earthly welfare.
Such training will not unfit them for the necessary cares and
toils of life. It will but render them less engrossing, less
worldly, and annihilate every feeling which they would blush to
acknowledge before God and man. It will take from life its
dross, its stagnating care, teaching them that their duty indeed
is to work and persevere, alike for their families and themselves,
but that in the hand of the Lord is their portion, and that He
will order their daily lot as will be most fitted for their eternal
welfare. It will remove every temptation to turn aside, for
lucre or ambition, from their father's faith. It will open heart
and hand towards the suffering and the poor, and, removing
every selfish feeling and grovelling thought, prepare them for
that day when the Lord again shall call them His, and bid
them resume that kingly station in the sight of the nations, of
which for "a little moment" only they are deprived.

The suffering Israelites, under the terrible oppression of
Pharaoh, imagined not the rank to which they would be called

PERIOD II. JOCHEBED. 149

by the word of the Lord. While groaning under their heavy
burdens, toiling day and night, with neither relief nor relaxa
tion, could they have imagined that, in their persecuted
offspring, princes should arise ; — that, in a brief interval, Chiefs
of their tribes, Heads of families, Captains of well-appointed
squadrons — Priests, sacred in the sight of all the people, and
acknowledged by the Eternal — Workers in every elegant art,
which was needed in the building and embellishment of the
Tabernacle — Warriors, dauntless in bravery, and skilful in the
art of war — Judges, gifted to decide causes, award sentences
and keep civil peace and order amid a disorderly multitude —
Princes, of such wealth and consequence as to make the splendid
offerings enumerated in the seventh chapter of Numbers — could
they have imagined that such would be ? Yet such WAS, and
such WILL BE. We know not when, we know not how — we
only know that the word of God has said it, and that He is a
God of truth. Shall we not remember this in the education of
our sons, and infuse such feelings as will render them indeed
but sojourners in the land of the captivity, watchers, as it were,
on the frontiers, prepared to arise, and fall into their appointed
stations, the moment the Lord shall call ? Let us welcome in
them the inclination for the liberal professions, all that will
enlarge the mind and ennoble the heart, and bid them prove, in
the sight of the whole Gentile world, that where the Hebrew is
FREE, he his brave, enterprising, self-denying, gifted, wise,
magnanimous, as the noblest of the nations around him. Let
the Hebrew mother give her boy the solid foundation of his
glorious faith, and he may go forth in the Nazarene world
unharmed ; and in other professions, other lines than that of
merchant, in which alone till now the Jew has been known, he
will honor the name of Israelite.

And if such be the fruit of nursing her child for God, oh !
will rot every Hebrew mother feel, that she has indeed received
" her wages ?"

160 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

CHAPTER II.

THE EXODUS. LAWS FOR THE MOTHERS Of

ISRAEL.

WE have seen quoted in a Jewish periodical, " that it was for
the sake of the righteous women the Lord delivered our
ancestors from Egypt." Scriptural authority for this assertion
we certainly cannot find, as it is expressly said, "the Lord
remembered the promises which he had made to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob." We only quote it as a proof that the ancient
fathers from whom we believe it taken, could not have had the
low idea of women with which they are charged, to have put
such an opinion forth, even in suggestion; but must have
imagined the righteousness of women of no little importance
towards the well-doing of the state. That so, in fact, it is, we
have direct scriptural authority to believe ; as not only a review
of the law will make manifest, but the consequences of the sins
of the women in a more distant period. Were not woman an
equally responsible agent in the sight of God — were He not in
His infinite mercy tenderly careful of her innocence, her honor,
her well-doing, her protection by man — no law for her in par
ticular need have been issued, nor such especial care taken to
cleanse her from impurity and guilt, to free her from false
charges and an unjust husband, to permit and sanctify her
singular vow, and give her every incentive for a chaste, virtuous,
and modest life. This need not have been — would not have
been — if the Eternal had not, in His compassionating love,
regarded His frailer, weaker children with even more tenderness
than He looked on man, and resolved on fixing her station and
her privileges, and so bringing her forward as an object at once
of tenderness and respect — of cherishing, as a wife and
daughter — of the deepest veneration, as a mother — the especial
object of national as well as individual love and protection, as
widowed and fatherless — and of the kindest, most fatherly care
And gentleness, as the maid-servant. Nay, even the female

PERIOD II. MOTHERS OF ISRAEL. 151

captive was marked out for fostering and healing kindness, and
allowed time for mourning, instead of, as in the case of other
nations, aye, even those of later days who called themselves
followers of Jesus, being hurried to the bed of the brutal
conqueror, who was often still reeking with the blood of her
relations. How then can it be said, that in every other religion
save that of the Nazarene, woman's station is degraded, even
as the heathen and the slave ?

With a mighty arm the Lord had brought forth Israel from
the land of bondage, enriched by the spoil, which they did not
borrow from the Egyptians, as the usual translation renders it,
bnt had demanded, "as their right from weary years of unpaid
labor, and which, terrified at the awful plagues which had be
fallen them, was granted them at once. " The Lord gave the people
favor in the sight of the Egyptians," are words twice repeated,
thus doing away at once all idea of the Eternal having favored
fraud, even against His enemies and the enemies of His people.
They demanded the long arrears of payment, and they were
given, in jewels of silver, and jewels of gold ; and so, not by
deceit, but in justice, they, to use the Bible language, " spoiled
the Egyptians."

The powers of Nature herself succumbed before the mighty
will of her Creator. Fire, earth, air, and water, had departed
from what is called their natural course, to bring forth Israel
from bondage, and to falsify at once the awful denial of a God,
in the vain dream of necessity and nature. The sea itself — as
the final seal to the stupendous manifestations of Almighty
Power displayed in the ten plagues — divided at the word of its
Creator, and the host of Israel — men, women, and little children
— passed through on dry land, with a watery wall, seeming to
unite earth to heaven, on either side. And when the unbe
lieving scoffers followed — when, denying still the sanctity ol
Israel, the wonders of Israel's God, the chariots and hosts
of Pharaoh dashed on in vain defiance of the Lord — down tum
bled the overwhelming mass of mighty waters, and the proud
hosts of Pharaoh lay dead before their slaves. And when the
song of thanksgiving, of adoration, rose from the hearts and lips
of the redeemed, the vc^ce not only of man but of woman pro
longed the strain. " And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of
Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand ; and all the women went
after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered

152 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

them, Sing ye to the Lord ! for He hath triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea."

Woman is not gifted with a silvery voice and an ear for har
mony, to devote to the pleasure of man alone. Let her devote
them sometimes to the praises of the Lord, and bid the psalm
of thanksgiving filling the sanctuary of the Lord be answered from
her lips ; and the sweet sanctuary of home, at morning and
evening prayer, behold her leading infant lips to tune their first
song in thanksgiving to their Father .ind their God.

As a general view of the beautiful laws constituting the Mo
saic religion does not enter into the plan of this work, we shall
throw together those portions on which, as they regard woman,
we shall somewhat lengthily treat, without any reference to their
probable dates. We know that all the laws forming our religion
were given between their departure from Egypt and arrival in
the promised land, and are contained principally in chapters 19,
20, 21, 22, 23, and 29 of Exodus — in the whole book of Levi
ticus — in chapters 5, 6, 8, 9, 15, 16, 17, 27, 28, 29, 30, 35, and
36 of Numbers — and in the whole book of Deuteronomy. From
these we select and examine all that can give weight to, and
throw light upon, the six divisions of our present subject.

As the first and most beautiful relationship in which
woman is undeniably necessary to man — the object of his first
affections, to whom he owes all of cherishing, happiness, and
health, from infancy to boyhood, and often from boyhood to
youth ; and who, in consequence, must be entwined with every
foad remembrance of childhood, the recollection of which is often
the only soother, the only light, in the darker heart of man —
it is but just that we should examine, first, how the holy rela
tionship of a MOTHER in Israel is guarded and noticed by our
law.

The very first command relative to the duties of man towards
man, marks out the position of children with regard to their
parents, male and female, the representatives of God on earth.
It was not enough that such position should be left to the natu
ral impulses of gratitude and affection — not enough that the love
and reverence of a child to his parent should be left to his own
heart, although in the cases of both Isaac and Jacob such had
been so distinctly manifested. No ; the same tremendous voice
which bade the very earth quake, and the fast rooted mountain
reel- — which spoke in the midst of thunders and lightnings,

PERIOD II. MOTHERS OF ISRAEL. 153

•* Thou shalt have no other gods but me," — also said, " Honor
thy father and thy MOTHER," and added unto its obedience a
promise of reward, the only command to which recompense is
annexed, that its obedience might indeed be an obedience of
love. And lest there should be some natures so stubborn and
obtuse that the fear of punishment only could affect, we read in
the repetition, and, as it were, enlargement on the ten com
mandments, " And he that smiteth his father or his MOTHER
shall surely be put to death, and he that curseth or revileth his
father or his MOTHER shall surely be put to death " (Exodus
xxi. 15 — 17). "Ye shall fear every man his MOTHER and
his father, and keep my sabbaths ; I am the Lord " (Levit. xix.
3). " For every one that curseth his father or his MOTHER, shall
purely be put to death. He that cursed his father or his MOTHER,
his blood shall be upon him." And again, in Deuteronomy v. 1 6,
we have the repetition of the fifth commandment, the reward
attending its obedience still more vividly enforced : " Honor
thy father and thy MOTHER, as the Lord thy God hath com
manded thee, that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may
go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth
thee."

With laws like these, bearing on every one of them the
stamp of divine truth, of a sacred solemnity which could come
from God alone, how can any one believe in, much less assert,
the Jewish degradation of woman, or call that Judaism which
upholds it !

How could these solemn and often reiterated commands bo
obeyed, if the son of Israel beheld his mother merely the igno
rant bond-slave of his father ? How could he honor her ? What
could have such influence upon his moments of passion as to
restrain him, when so tempted, from smiting, reviling, or cursing
her ? How could he fear her, when he beheld her trembling
before his father, not as her husband, but as her master ? But
such he saw not. Weaker in frame, from her position and her
duties ; less mighty in mental powers, yet possessing every attri
bute to make home blessed, and her children holy followers of
God, virtuous and patriotic citizens of their land ; shrined in his
heart with every memory of his infancy ; — such was the Hebrew
mother to her son. Were the laws obeyed, there could be no
neglectful or sinning mother. Not even suspicion could attack
jer. The law guarded her even from her own relatives, if thej

154 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

falsely wronged her, compelled her, even under the fear of <leat\
to be chaste, holy, virtuous, and faithful in every duty of domestic
and public life ; and, therefore, it was a labor of love for her
children to obey their God in honoring her, and a crime worthy
of death, if indeed there could be found any sufficiently hardened
ana rebellious as to disobey.

Again, we find in Deut. xxi. 18, " If a man have a stubborn
and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father or
the voice of his MOTHER, and who, when they have chastened
him, will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and his
MOTHER lay hold of him, and bring him to the elders of the city
and unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto the
eiders of the city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious ; he
will not obey our voice. And all the men of his city shall stone
him with stones that he die. So shalt thou put away evil from
among you, that all Israel shall hear and fear."

We here find at length a practical commentary or example,
as it were, of the briefer laws on the same subject, given pre
viously. To modern ears, and present notions of false refine
ment, such commands seem unnaturally harsh and terrible. In
those times, they must have been needed, or they would not
have been given. And beautifully, even in their harshness, do
they demonstrate the reverential duty of Israelitish children to
their parents. Still more powerfully do they illustrate the per
feet equality of father and mother in respect to their children.
It was not only that disobedience to the latter was equally
punishable as to the former, but that the voice of the MOTHER
was also to condemn her son, or he could not be proved guilty ;
a peculiarly just law in a nation where more than one wife was
allowed. Without it, how often might the more favored work
upon the husband to believe false tales of the offspring of her
rival ! How often might innocence have been condemned, in
justice and cruelty permitted, in a man's own household ! Evils
effectually prevented by the father's witness being unavailable
without that of the accused's own mother — one, we must feel,
not at all likely to come forward against her own child, unless'
his crimes had been so heinous as to prevent the possibility of
her shielding him any longer. We have no recorded instance
of such a fearful evil in Israel ; but the severe law given in case
of such, should never be forgotten by us, marking, as it does,

PERIOD II. — MOTHERS OF ISRAEL. 153

the wrath and justice of the Lord against all those of His chosen
people who could forget, neglect, or wilfully abuse, in any one
point, their duty to their earthly parents.

Although mothers are not individually commanded to instruct
their children in the knowledge of God and llis Law, they are
certainly joined with the fathers in the performance of that
sacred duty. Every statute, every ordinance, given by the Lord
to Moses, was always introduced by the command, " Speak ye
to the Children of "Israel ;" " Say ye to the children of Israel ;"
or, " Hear, O Israel ;" words including the whole congregation,
male and FEMALE. Had man only been included, Moses would
have addressed them as sons, or as fathers of tribes, as we find
Aaron and his sons, and the priests or Levites, in some few in
stances particularly specified. That woman is intimately joined
with man in the religious instruction of her children, is also
proved by the fact that the mothers of the kings of Israel and
Judah are always mentioned by name, as if to them, yet more
than to their fathers, they owed their early impressions of good
or evil which their after lives displayed. The very commands
regarding parents are strong confirmation. A son could not
honor, and fear, and love his mother, if he only owed her his
first nourishment, and received nothing at her hand but the
sp,me instinctive care as the brute creation display towards their
young. The immortal mind and soul of man must have sorne-
thing°more to reverence and fear, even if the natural links bind
ing mother and son were sufficient (which we much doubt) to
caTl for love. In commanding reverence and obedience from
children, God knew that He had so gifted the Hebrew mother,
and so marked her duties and position, as to render such emo
tions merely her due. To her, then, as well as to the father,
are those important injunctions contained in Deut. vi. 20 — 2;".,
emphatically addressed ; and according to the measure^of her
obedience to them, so will be the measure of her children's reve
rence and love.

The same chapter, but a few verses previous, had solemnly
commanded Israel to love the Lord his God with heart, and
soul, and might— to lay his words upon his own heart, and
teach them diligently to his children. And, after demanding
obedience and righteousness in other statutes, proceeds^: " And
when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean
these testimonies, and statutes, and judgments which the Lord

156 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

our God hath commanded you ? Then tliou shalt say unto thy
son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt, and the Lord
brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand ; and the Lord
showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon
Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes ; and Ho
brought us out from thence that he might bring us in, to give
us the land which He sware unto our fathers. And the Lord
commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our
God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it
is at this day. And it is our righteousness if we observe to do
all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He hath
commanded us.

On the weighty all, which to Hebrew parents is comprised in
these emphatic verses, we must not at present linger, save to ob
serve, that much as was required from parents, when the law
>vas given, and in Jerusalem, still more is needed now. We
have to add to the history of our bondage and redemption, that
of our glory and our sins — of our first captivity and our partial
restoration — our renewed and increased iniquities — of the long
suffering, long forbearance of an infinitely merciful God — of His
averted, yet at length falling wrath — of our exile, our persecu
tion, and misery — all which Moses himself foretold ; and yet
our never-dying hope, our incentive for constancy, even through
the flames of martyrdom, or the more lingering martyrdom of a
crushed spirit and broken heart ; the imperative necessity of a
return unto the Lord through humility and righteousness, trust
ing in Him to purify and save.

All this must now be added to the parental instruction
enforced by Moses : and all this is equally demanded from the
mother as from the father, would they receive to its full extent
the reverence ordained by God Himself. For not by precepi
alone must this instruction be given. The young spirit must
be led by example as well as exhortation. Let him see that
the instructions of his parents come from the heart as well as
lips — influence their thoughts, words, and actions — nay, their
very being — and never need they despair. However long it
may be before the fruit they have sown appear, it will spring
into beautiful maturity at last, and shed its purest fragrance in
that hour when the faithful mother watches the rapid approach
of that last struggle which shall wing her spirit tr the footstool
of her God.

PERIOD II. M OTHERS OF ISRAEL. 1 57

Will, then, the Hebrew mother rest content with the station
assigned her by the ignorant and the prejudiced, and not strain
every nerve, rouse every energy, to make the command of the
Eternal for her children to honor and fear her, easy, and joyous
to obey ?

She has done, and she does this ! Not a slur, not a stigma,
not a shadow can be flung upon the conduct of Hebrew mothers
to their offspring. Neglect, injustice, partiality, want of affec
tion, harshness, coldness flung by fashion between mother and
child, that littleness and jealousy which would keep back youth
ful loveliness for a longer individual reign,— such things may be
known — may be common — among other nations, but to the
Hebrew they are utterly unknown. It is easy to assert that the
woman of Israel is degraded and a slave ; but did such false
accusers visit a domestic circle — did they but see a Hebrew
mother and her children— they would find it difficult to prove
it. Then let every son of Israel receive such religious training
from his mother, in addition, or rather closely twined, to the
moral and intellectual education she has so long given, that he
may be ready, from his very boyhood, indignantly to repudiate
the charge, and prove, by his whole conduct — alike in public
career, as well as his domestic reverence and love— that his
mother is as free in the sight of man, as responsible in the sight
of God, and as much the possessor of an immortal spirit as his
father and himself.

To the Mosaic religion, then, and to no other, does not only
Israel, but every other nation by whom the Bible is acknow
ledged divine, owe the elevation, the dignity, the ^ holiness of
woman as a MOTHER, a position marked out by God Himself,
nnd proclaimed and held sacred, not only by the awful threat of
punishment, but by the solemn promise of divine reward. How
sacred then to every son and daughter of Israel must be their
duty to their parents ! Disobedience, neglect, scorn, are no
longer capital offences according to the justice of man ; but,
oh f let us not for one moment forget, that the same God who
commanded that such they should be, is watching over Israel
Btill, will demand from every child if His command has been
obeyed— from every parent if they have done their duty, and
taught their children from earliest years, that disobedience to
them i* disobedience to 4.\cir God, and in His eyes, and in His
law, a capital offence. Were this truth more constantly, more

158 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

impressively enforced, the reciprocal duties of parent and child
would be more easily and more happily fulfilled , and the heart
burnings, the anguish, occasioned to parents by neglect and
unkindness, and the rebellion and constant struggles of their
offspring to fling off an authority which has never been exerted
in infancy, and so must gall in youth, alike be at an end, and
Israel's homes, as well as Israel's law, proclaim the guiding Spirit
and loving mercy of the Lord.

CHAPTER III

LAWS FOR THE WIVES OF ISRAEL

THE laws instituted for the protection, the position, the duties,
of the wives of Israel, were more peculiar to the manners and
customs of the East only, than those relative to mothers, which
can be obeyed and attended to in every age and clime. Still
much was instituted, even with regard to wives, which marked
and fixed their position, and decidedly elevated woman in the
Bcale of being, and proved that, though, as was just and wise,
" her desires must bow to her husband, and he should rule ovei
her," yet that this rule was to be one of perfect confidence
and love.

It has always appeared a mystery, how any person, even
among the Gentiles, who has seriously reflected on, and studied
the word of God, can assert that it was only through the
preaching of Jesus and his apostles that woman took her proper
station, and those ordinances were given, which restrained the
passions of men, and made marriage a pure and holy tie.
Centuries before the advent of Christianity, those laws we"e
given, which, regarding and prohibiting too near consanguinity
in marriage, are acknowledged and obeyed by the whole civi
lized world. Where do we find, amid the Gentile nations, the
purity, the chastity, the stainless virtue of woman, to the exten/

f EK1OD II.^WIVES OF ISRAEL. 109

which is still the glory of Israel, and which owes its origin
simply to the laws which were issued by the Lord through
Moses ; seeming, indeed, most terribly severe, but blessed in
their very severity by the beautiful purity in Israel which they
wrought? Were the law of Moses universally received, how
different would be the aspect of the world !

Polygamy was permitted in Israel, at the period of the deli
very of the law, simply because the Eternal's mercy would not
interfere with an immemorial usage, which his wisdom knew,
from local customs and long-indulged habit, would demand
violence to be relinquished. The laws He instituted in no way
interfered with those habits of His people which custom had
endeared ; His prescience leaving to time that improvement and
greater refinement of the human race, which demands ages to
accomplish, but which would at length fling aside of itself every
fetter that once had linked it to the customs of less enlightened
nations. The Eternal never works by superhuman agency,
when His gracious plans can be accomplished without it. " A
thousand years in His sight are but as yesterday when passed,
and as a watch in the night ;" but His infinite wisdom knew,
that, to finite man, that period is ever fraught with progression,
and His omniscience leaves to time, according to the reckoning
of humanity, the effect of His law in the amelioration and im
provement of the human race. Our very banishment amid the
nations, a banishment occasioned by Israel's sinful abuse of the
tender mercies of the Lord — by his retrogression instead of ad
vancement, in the glorious career to which he was destined — by
his indulgence of every guilty passion, and utter forgetfulness of
his fathers' God to bow down before the idols of his idolatrous
wives — this very banishment will purify Israel from the grosser
part of his Eastern nature, and render him fitted, by increase of
purity and refinement, to become once more the first born of
the Lord, from whose beautiful land those laws shall issue onco
again, to emanate in reviving light and gladness over the whole
world.

But, though permitted by the Mosaic law, polygamy was so
restricted, that the protection, happiness, and well-doing of both
wives were provided for ; no partiality could permit injustice ;
the man that did so was punishable by law. " If a man hava
two wives, the one beloved and the other hated, and they have
borne him children, both the beloved and the hated, and if the

160 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

first-born son be hers that is hated, then it shall be, when h«
maketh his sons to inherit all that he hath, that he may no-
make the son of the beloved first born before the son of the
hated, which is indeed the first born, but he shall acknowledge
the son of the hated for the first born, by giving him a doublo
portion of all that he hath."

The Hebrew term translated hated here, as in the case of
Leah, does not signify so strong a feeling, but simply the one
less beloved than the other. And, as had already been practi
cally illustrated in the wives of the Patriarch Jacob, this law
provides for, and fixes the perfect equality of both ; guarding
the less beloved from all the evil effects of indiscriminate par
tiality, and utterly preventing the father from doing injustice to
her offspring. The care taken of every member of a Jewish
family — from the strongest to the weakest — by the law of God,
would, had that law been obeyed, have effectually prevented
that fearful abuse of the Lord's mercy in not interfering with
the ancient customs of His people, which in the time of the
monarchy so disgraced and desecrated Israel. But let not the
scoffer cast the odium of such abuse on the Jewish Law. That
law was pure — infused with the love, the compassion, the fos
tering care, the justice, and the severity of the God from whom
it came. Its OBEDIENCE would have wrought "the days of
heaven upon the earth." Its DISOBEDIENCE, springing from the
innate sinfulness of man, wrought evil from the good, and
plunged the whole nation of Israel into that fearful abyss of
crime, which could only be expiated by ages of misery and
blood.

But though allowed to exist without being considered a crime
at the period of the redemption from Egypt, for the reasons
stated above, the laws of Moses, relating to conjugal duties, pro
vided for one wife alone, thus proving the superior and holier
purity of such unions in the sight of God, and thus forcibly
marking the distinction between those customs which were to
last for ever, through every age, and race, and clime, and those
which were merely nationalized from previous habit and asso
ciation.

The oneness of heart and feeling, of purpose and obedience,
which was ordained by God Himseff, from the very beginning,
k> exist between husoand and wife, and whict could only spring
from perfect equality is most beautifully infused throughout the

PERIOD II. WIVES OF ISRAEL. 161

»aw. Inferred from the simple fact, that in every recorded
instance of enumeration at festivals, eating of holy meats, obedi
ence to commandments, &c., the wife is not distinctly men
tioned, although every other domestic relation is expressly
stated. As one with her husband, the wife was included in the
emphatic thou, to whom the command or ordinance was ad
dressed. The children and servants of a household might have
rebel liously turned aside from the precepts of the Lord, but tho
wife's duty and happiness were one with her husband's. Her
will was his, when that will was guided and sanctified by the
will of God. That she could require the divine command indi
vidually to keep holy the Sabbath day, to share the feast of the
offerings, <fec., was a supposition too utterly at variance with her
duty as a daughter and wife in Israel, to demand a distinct law ;
being counted amongst those to whom Moses proclaimed, "When
all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God, in tho
place which He shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all
Israel in their hearing ; Gather the people together, men,
women, and children, and the stranger that is within thy gates,
that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord
your God, and observe to do all the words of this law," no He
brew wife could have needed more, for she, as well as her
husband — one with him — was the recipient, the obeyer, and the
promulgator of every law in which there was no specified dis
tinction of individual duties.

That the omission of wife in the commandments and ordi
nances which specify other members of the family, cannot bo
taken in any other light, is proved by the foct, that wherever
there was a possibility of her occupying a distinct position, or
being engaged in anj devices or employments contrary to tho
will of her husband, she is expressly named.

" Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" is emphatically
commanded by the same Divine Voice which omitted her, or
rather included her in the " thou-'' to whom the fourth of the
same precepts, whence the line we have. quoted was the tenth,
was given. Thus guarding her safety, and prohibiting the very
first thought towards her which could have led to sin.

Again, " if thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son,
or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or the friend whom
thou lovest as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, * Let
ua go and servo, other gods, whom thou hast not known, thou

162 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

nor thy fathers,' &c., thou shalt not consent unto him, noi
hearken unto him ; neither shall thine eye pity, neither shalt thou
spare, neither shalt thou conceal him." Here, in intimate conjunc
tion with the preceding commandment, is a positive mention of
the wife, supposing her to be actuated by feelings and principles
so distinct from her husband, as to tempt him to sin. The
omission of wives in ordinances where every other member of
the household is named, is not then in any way whatever to
suppose her a nonentity, a mere name in Israel, but simply to
mark her oneness with her husband, in every duty to her God,
and in every command and restriction of His law addressed
to the CHILDREN of Israel, and, therefore, binding on them

BOTH.

" When a man has taken a wife, he shall not go out to
war ; neither shall he be charged with any business, but he
shall be free at home for one year." Were this the whole law,
we might justly suppose that the happiness of man was alone
regarded ; but it is not so. Why was this year of release
granted him ? For his own enjoyment ? his own pleasure ?
No ! but to " cheer up " — or, in other words, to make happy
— the wife which he had taken. Words how exquisitely
descriptive of the Eternal's tender sympathy in the earthly
happiness of his children ! He condescended to enter into the
minute details of domestic life ; He guarded even their earthly
happiness from all contingencies, and proved that he demanded
not His love to be realized only in sorrow, but that joy, chas
tened, spiritualized by gratitude and love, was equally acceptable
and blessed.

Man might find happiness apart from his wife, even in the
first year of his marriage. The exciting call of war, or the grosser
and more engrossing claims of business, might easily obtain
such dominion as to render him less careful of his home, less
anxious for the happiness of his wife, than were he free.
Woman has no such claims to share her heart with her hus
band. Almost more than any other time in her young exist
ence does she need the protecting care and fostering tenderness
of man, in the first year of her wedded life. She has left the
home of her youth, the fond parents who had lavished on her
auch love and care, that it seems strange how she can possibly
exist without them. She has turned from her occupations, the
tmusements of her early years, dear from Vmg association, ta

PERIOD II. WIVES OF ISRAEL. 163

enter into an entirely new scene, new feelings, i&ew duties, new
responsibilities : and for guidance and support, under her God,
looks with justice to her husband alone. She may be called
upon to battle with sickness and with pain, and she has no
longer a mother beside her to give her the fond cares of a ten
der nurse, and take from her all household duties. She has
turned from all for the love of One 1 And how may she be
happy if that one be torn from her by the call to war, perhaps
never to return, or by civil duties, which, though the lesser evil,
might yet check the daily intercourse of mutual love and con
fidence for which she pines ?

But, left " free for one year," how much of felicity, not only for the
present, but the future, would that single ordinance bring to both.
And must not we, the lineal descendants of those to whom such
a revelation of God's love was given, feel, to our heart's core,
that God is indeed the God of love which he proclaimed Him
self to Moses ? Surely no woman of Israel can fear to approach
Him, deeming Him a being too awfully holy to look on such as
her, when that unapproachable holiness is veiled by such a flood
of irradiating love towards her individually, that she is more
than weak, is guilty, if she keep aloof, and refuse, under the mis
taken plea of too great unworthiness, to clasp the mercy proffered,
and fold its healing balsam to her heart. God would not bid us
love Him, if we were too unworthy so to do. He would not in
His every law, His every promise, demonstrate His compassion
ating care, His appealing love, His long-suffering mercy, did He
deem us too unworthy to receive them. Can the flower that
gems the grass give back the loving care that there hath placed,
guards, and will renew it ? Can the bird give back the foster
ing Jove which guards its fragile form, teaches the construction
of its tiny nest, and guards its helpless young ? Can the insect
know and return the Father's love that guards its gossamer life,
blesses it with acute sensation, and endows it with such wisdom
in the construction of its web, nest, or cell, as to excite man's
envy ? Yet, has not the Eternal care for these ? and will not
therefore all Nature confirm His precious word, and tell us He
has equal care and equal love for us ? True, we have sinned —
we do sin — and, alas ! will sin again, till that blessed day when
the " stony heart shall be replaced with a heart of flesh," which
will, unsullied by mortal frailties, cleave unto the Lord. Yel
God has given us power to struggle with and resist the evil, if

164 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

we cani.ot in this world wholly conquer it. He has told us,
that " His ways are not our ways," and, therefore, however
incomprehensible to finite man, " in HIM shall the SEED of
ISRAEL be justified, and shall glory." He has taught us in
infinite compassion, what we must DO, and how FEEL, to be
acceptable in His sight ; not in the law alone, for if we study
only that in our captivity, we shall be appalled by the ordinan
ces we cannot now perform, but in His prophets and the Psalms,
which, as rules of conduct and of feeling, will give us all we
need.

As a statute of the Israelitish state, the law we have been
considering is no longer obeyed ; it cannot be, for we are not
now in our own land ; but it is the spirit of the ordinance which
po nearly concerns us, more especially as women.

To recognise to its full extent the distinction between the ways
of God and the ways of man, so beautifully displayed in this our
law, Jet us think one moment on the policy actuating leaders and
lawgivers of more modern times, men professing to be guided
by the spirit of love and peace. Where, in feudal times, do we
find provision thus made for the newly-wedded ? A stigma,
never to be blotted out, would have clung round the name and
reputation of that man who would not turn from his home and
young wife, even on his marriage day, at the first rude call to
lawless, and often most unnecessary war. Where do we find
lawgivers, princes, and nobles, ever taking into consideration the
comfort and peace, we will not even say happiness, of theii
female followers ? Where were laws ever issued for her, to
guard with fostering tenderness her gentle virtues, her clinging
affections, her domestic charms ? Where, save in the law of God ?
To attract attention, to win respect, to obtain protection, she was
compelled to be more great than^ooc?, to leave her natural sphere,
and manifest fortitude, bravery, and devotedness, qualities indaed
excellent in themselves, but, as proved in the middle ages, only
valued for their near relation to the qualities of the warrior, and
departure from woman's ordinary habits and home. And by
what thousands of suffering women, of all ages, must these cha
racteristics have been unattainable, and in consequence how
many thousands left to all the misery of deserted homes, crushed
affections, and the countless nameless tortures borne by woman
in a lonely unprotected path ? And much later than the feudal
times, a period but very little removed into the past, — shall w«

PERIOD II. WIVES OF ISRAEL. 165

Bay the horrible conscription which devastated France, and every
conquered territory owning Buonaparte as master, manifested that
care of woman, that tender sympathy in her every feeling, which
we are told is only found with the believers in the gospel ? We
must judge of the divinity of laws by the spirit which, from their
observance, emanates over those to whom they are binding
The Jewish law is, on many points, during our captivity, impos
sible to be observed. Yet we see the spirit of its ancient ordi-
Dances still guiding our homesteads, impelling the gentlest and
most confiding spirit towards woman in every relation of life.
The Hebrew may scarcely be conscious what actuates his tender
ness towards his wife and children, but it comes from the spirit
of that law, given to his fathers, in which woman was marked
as the especial care and protection of the Lord. The law, in form,
like the human frame, may die for a time, but the spirit of the
ordinances, like the soul of the body, is immortal, and will revive
again the shell from which awhile it may have flown.

The law of Vows is considered by some derogatory to the dig
nity of woman, by rendering her liable to the will of her husband,
and subject to his approval, even in her devoting herself to her
God. We will endeavor to prove that the supposition is mis
taken. Equally acceptable and responsible as man in the sight
of God, still, as we have said before, " her desires were to bow to
her husband." She neglected her conjugal duty if she pursued
any course, even under the pretence of religious motives, con
trary to his will. A singular vow demanded a voluntary
relinquishment of domestic duties and enjoyments, to devote
herself in some way to His service ; it is generally supposed in
some employments of the Tabernacle, or in the service of llis
poor, or in the " binding oath to afflict the soul," giving herself
up for a certain time to individual fast and prayer. Now few
women in Israel, except orphaned single women, and childless
widows, could be so independently situated as to make and fol
low up these vows without interfering with some nearer domes
tic duty. Woman's sphere in the law of God, without doubt,
is HOME ; her noblest attraction, devotedness to those with whom
she is there thrown in daily intercourse. Some women there
are, who find not only duty, but pleasure there — not only love,
but safety. Others again, restless and discontented, fancy they
should be happier, and better, and more useful, anywhere but
where they are, and gladly seize the first pretence to turn nsido.

166 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Spiritual devotedness is too often a worldly snare, and th«
pride of holiness the most dangerous temptation which can
possibly assail us. We have often heard (amongst the Gen.
tiles indeed, not amongst ourselves, for we have unhappily too
few enthusiasts of any kind) Df what is termed a saint (we abhor
the falsity of the term, but we are using now the language of
the world). One avowedly devoted to the cause of religion ;
passing hours in her closet, surrounded by religious books, all,
we may observe, commentaries, but not the Word of Life
itself; or. with religious friends, wearing a peculiar dress, and
most peculiar manners ; visiting the poor, more often with tracts
than food; censuring every innocent amusement as profane, and
temptations of Satan ; bearing words of humility on the lips,
but of pride in heart ; outwardly condemning and abhorring
her own sins, but inwardly thanking God that she is so much
holier than others ; robing religion in such dark and terrible
colors, that the young spirit shrinks from it, and plunges in the
world with renewed zest, to escape from the faintest semblance
of its acceptance.

If there be such, mistaken they certainly are; but their
judgment rests with Him whom they seek after their own
thoughts to serve, not with their brother man, who, without
soir.e more true and sacred guide, might equally be led astray.
Wb have merely alluded to this class of religious enthusiasts,
more clearly to manifest the evil which the law of vows effectu
ally excluded, but which, without such law, might, from the
holiness pervading God's people, have been more than likely to
ensue.

Man did not need such restraint upon his " singular vows ;"
because, in the first place, he was more independent than
woman ; in the next, reason, not feeling, being his guide, he
was not likely to fall into the temptation of ill-regulated enthusi
asm, even in his holiest and dearest duty. Woman's guide in
general is feeling: she is a creature of impulse, ever likely,
unless strongly yet tenderly restrained, to turn aside from the
safer and less excitable path of daily duty, wherever the affec
tions or the enthusiasm of the moment may lead. Moro
especially is she likely to fall into this temptation when firsi
awakened to the claims, and beauty, and comfort of religion.
The simple duties of home then seem little worth, compared to
the service of heaven. Herself, her Darents and brothers, has-

PERIOD II. WIVES OF ISRAEL. 167

baud and children, appear of slender consequence compared to
the state of her affections and faith towards God. The perfect
compatibility of her duties towards God and towards man is
unperceived. She cannot realize that the unfatiguing, unex
citing duties of domestic usefulness, infused with thoughts of
God and of His word, is the path most acceptable to Him ;
and severing, instead of uniting, she neglects what she deems
the lesser, to pursue the greater duty.

Many avenues were open to the wives of Israel to tempt the
taking " singular vows." The birth of children, the recovery
from illness, escape from danger, receipt of some unexpected
blessing, dread of impending sorrow, or misfortune extraordi
narily averted, and sin repented of, all these might, in the close
links which, when the law was given, bound Israel to the Lord,
and in the warm passionate emotions of Eastern women, have
impelled either the vow of service, to make manifest their
thanksgiving, or the vow of affliction by fasting and prayer, to
propitiate the Lord and turn away His wrath. And this vow
might be taken in a moment of strong feeling, without sufficient
thought as to the possibility of its performance, without inter
fering with the comforts of her husband and children, or her
duties to her household. Was it not, then, just and wise, that
the impetuous feeling of woman should be guided and tenderly
restrained by the calmer, stronger reason and foresight of man ?

But that this dependence on her husband in no way subjected
her to his caprice, is proved by the law which we will extract
at length. " If a woman shall vow a vow unto the Lord, and
bind herself by a bond And if she had at all a hus
band when she vowed or uttered aught out of her lips wherewith
she bound her soul ; and her husband heard it, and held his
peace at her in the day that he heard it, then her vows shall
stand, and her bonds wherewith she bound her soul shall stand.
But if her husband disallowed her on the day that he heard,
then he shall make her vows which she vowed, and that which
she uttered with her lips, wherewith she bound her soul, of none

effect, and the Lord shall forgive her Every vow, and

every binding oath to afflict the soul, her husband may establish
it, or her husband may make it void. Bat if her husband hold
kis peace at her from day to day, then he estallisheth all her
vows, or all her bonds which are upon her. He conjirmeth
them, because he held his peace at her in the day that he heard

168 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

them. And if he shall any ways make them void, after that he
hath heard them, THEN HE SHALL BEAR HER INIQUITY." (Num
bers xxx. 3, 6, Y, 8, 13, 14, 15.)

We here find most particular care taken to shield woman from
tiiat indecision and caprice from which she is so often the
innocent sufferer.

The honor, respect, and deference which should characterize
a wife's conduct and feelings towards her husband, are first
enforced. For the unperformed vow, or the breaking the vows
of the lips, the Lord will forgive her, because they ha\e been
disallowed by her husband. But they must be disallowed when
taken. If from indecision, or weakness, or unkindness, in the
determination to thwart the wishes of his wife, he neither forbids
nor confirms, but remains silent, that silence, in the sight of
God and to his wife, is CONFIRMATION. He has no power
capriciously to prevent the fulfilment of her bond or vow by
declaring that silence is not consent, and he does not choose
that her vow shall be performed. He cannot do this. His very
caprice is effectually prevented, for, if he acts thus, the woman's
breach of vows will indeed be forgiven to her, but HE SHALL
BEAR ITS INIQUITY, — a law whose beautiful justice marks its
divine origin more forcibly than almost any other guiding the
conduct of husband and wife.

No human legislator could have enacted it, for what lawgiver
of earth could have gone so deeply into the very heart of man,
and guarded the domestic relations of life from such petty yet
constant misery as caprice ?

One most consoling truth we learn by this law : it is in itself
a direct and positive refutation of the charge brought against
us, that Jewish women have no access to God — no right what
ever tc interfere with the requirements and ordinances of
religion. Were woman the creature of a day, passing hence to
be no more, with neither hope of reward nor liability to wrath,
beyond this world, why should she have the power of making
vows at all ; and so solemnly, that did man interfere with their
due performance, he should bear her iniquity, and woman — aye,
the despised and degraded woman — should be forgiven ?

The candid and unprejudiced reader of the word of life, be
his faith what it may, must perceive how mistaken is such a
charge ; and let not, then, our young sisters be tempted to quit
Uieir native fold for another, where they are told greater privi

PERIOD II. WIVES OF ISRAEL. 100

feges await them, both as women and as immortal beings. Let
them not be terrified by the charge that, as Jewish women, they
are soulless slaves. - But let them come to the word of God,
and prove that there is their shield, there is their defence. That
there their God Himself has revealed a love and care for His
weaker children, too deeply, too nearly, too blessedly for them
to need aught else ; that there is their hope, as there is their
consolation.

Yet more to protect his feebler creation from the fierce passions
and unjust accusations of Eastern natures, the Most High, in his
infinite mercy, instituted the law of jealousy, an awful and most
terrible law, yet one which every innocent woman must have
hailed with thankfulness, and which every guilty woman must
have died ere she could have faced. The various sins prohibited
by the voice of God Himself, in His Ten Commandments, are all
in His sight of equal magnitude, and, therefore, without any
reservation whatever, were all punishable with death. And
well had it been for the purity, virtue, and happiness of man,
had this blessed law continued in force as it was given, and
thence had emanated over the whole world. It has been called
a law of fire and blood, given but to destroy and be destroyed.
But the charge is false. The Eternal knew the natures of those
to whom it w;is given — that severity was needed for the time ;
and had that severity been used, and the law literally arid purely
OBEYED, even as it was intended, each generation would have
been purer and more spiritual than the former, till that holiness
was at length universally attained, which would indeed have
brought " the days of heaven on the earth ;" and Israel would
not now have been persecuted and tortured in some lands, and
an exile and a wanderer, houseless and priestless, in them all !

Adultery, even as idolatry, sabbath-breaking, murder, &c.,
was punishable by death. In Israel, the ruthless spoiler of man's
dearest shrine — his home, sacrificed not only his honor (which,
however high sounding, to such characters must be but a name),
not only his standing and his wealth, but his LIFE. Aye, and
not the tempter only, but the wife, the mother, who could fling
misery upon a tortured husband, and undying shame upon her
helpless babes. Yet amid a people irascible and fierce, too
liable to jealousy to examine calmly and justly, as we know is
the case at this very day with every Eastern nation, a law was
imperatively needed to protect the helpless and innocent, alike

170 THE WOMJS* OF ISRAEL.

from false charges and a husband's unjust hiito. No man could
take justice into his own hands. He dared not injure the
reputation, or take the life of his wife, without having her guilt
proved by God Himself. A false accusation had no power to
fling shame upon her, or render her station doubtful, as it would
now. The Most High Himself interfered in her defence, and
proved, in the face of the whole people, her innocence and
honor ; as, were she guilty, He took into His own hands her
punishment, and the manifestation of her guilt.

The law of jealousy is not in general regarded by the women
of Israel as it ought to be. False refinement shrinks from it as
a thing perfectly unnecessary and antiquated now. Nay, perhaps
as a law so horrible, so indelicate, that they wonder that it is
not expunged from the Bible. By us it is welcomed as another
most consoling and unanswerable proof of the Eternal's tender
mercy towards us. The full extent of its use and justice can
only be realized by contrasting it with the statutes of the south
ern and eastern nations, with whose quick passions and excitability,
Israel, when the law was given, had more in common than with
the cooler and more dispassioned north.

With the followers of Mahomet does not a mere thought, a
mere suspicion, unaided by the very shadow of proof, commit
the helpless woman to a watery grave, with none to interfere in
her behalf, or mourn her when at rest? None to clear her
name, or bring the false and cruel husband to justice and to
shame ? And amidst those bearing the Christian name, do not
th 3 Italian and Spaniard make as murderous use of the stiletto
or the drugged cup, as the Moslem of the sack ? That such
misery is seldom heard of in Protestant countries, comes not
from actual law, but from that greater civilization and refinement,
which must spring from public and private communion with the
BIBLE. ' This is the safeguard of Protestant women, and this
they owe to the spirit of that law given to us by God Himself.
Some among the Gentiles there are, honest and spiritual enough
to acknowledge this ; and from our very heart we honor such
honest lovers of truth. But others, and unhappily the greater
number, there are who fling shame and dishonor upon the
women of the very people for whose safety those blessed laws
were framed, the spirit of which is now guiding the Protestant0,
themselves.

By contrasting the law vouchsafed ) us with Miose guiding

PERIOD II. WIVES OF ISRAEL. 171

the Gentiles of all denominations, we learn to know the true
value of the blessed faith which we possess, and are armed
against all insidious efforts to turn us from it. But this can never
be whilst the women of Israel regard the laws of Moses only in
a national and local, not in an individual view, believing that,
because they are no longer in actual use, they only relate to
them in their several positions in Jerusalem, and do not in the
least concern them now.

They do concern us, most nearly and most consolingly. He
whose infinite mercy gave them has not cast us from His love,
though, for a time, compelled for our sins to bear witness to the
nations of His justice and His wrath. Yet for us, as a people,
and each of us individually, He bears the same infinite long-
suffering love which he bore to our ancestors in Egypt. We
learn this from every prophet, who never spoke of sin without
holding forth forgiveness, who never prophesied dispersion and
banishment without comforting with the promise of restoration ;
and we know the extent of our Father's Love towards us, by
every statute of His law.

The interference of the Most High in cases similar to those
cjilling for the law of jealousy, the wives of Israel may no longer
need: but are there none in minor circumstances wrongfully
accused ? None needing a Father who knoweth every secret
thought and inward struggle, to whom to look when man may
wilfully wrong, or blindly misappreciate ? None who struggle
;>n in the petty, but how sadly wearing, trials of daily life, to do
what seems the best, to act the kindest, to banish every throb
of self, and sacrifice all of individual comfort and enjoyment to
further the comfort and the wishes of another, yet finds her
every effort turned against herself, and armed with acutest woe ?
In such cases, and who shall say there are none such, where cau
woman turn, but to her God ? Where find consolation, save in
the belief that her innocence, her efforts, rest with Him, and He
will one day make them known? Where shall her heart,
bleeding and torn from its earthly rest, find peace, save in His
.ove ? Oh ! what woman bearing the name of Israel, can hesitate
ons moment to pour forth her every grief to him, and feel she
Is individually his care, and He will plead her cause ?

The express commands relating to the marriages of the priests
is another beautiful proof of woman's perfect equality in Israel,
*nd compatibility to be holy unto the Lord, by sharing the

1*72 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

holiness of his elected servants ; a proof, also, that in His sen-ice
the Eternal demanded no sacrifice of human affections. They
were, indeed, to be sanctified to Him, to be infused with His
spirit, and so to become a blessing and a joy to His servants ;
but never to be annihilated, and so give temptation for the most
awful abuses and crimes, as in the monastic seclusions of the
Roman church. The sanctity, the purity, which was to attend
the wife of the priest, was a further incentive to the purity and
holiness of the women in Israel. Superiority of actual ranks
there was none, but superiority in virtue there was, and to gain
that superiority was in the power of all women under the guid
ance of the law. The priests were the very highest and noblest
in^the sight of the people, being the elect of the Lord, and the
ministers of His will. How pure, then, and holy, must have
been the ambition to become worthy of selection as the priests'
wives ; and how beautifully is the superior holiness and sanctity
of the women of Israel brought forward by the simple fact that
the priests of the Lord might only choose a wife from " their own
people !"

It is evident, then, from every law we have regarded, that,
instead of being degraded and enslaved, the wives in Israel were
peculiarly and especially objects of the Eternal's love. For their
safety, their honor, those laws were issued, now recognised by
the greater part of the civilized world ; and all those who deny
this shake the very foundations of the whole system of morality,
under whatever creed it may be found. The Gentile is in very
truth " debtor to the Jew " for far more than he acknowledges ;
for every law unconsciously guiding and sanctifying his domestic
relations, refining his own conduct, elevating his own mind, for
every law blessing his home with a faithful wife, respected
mother, and duteous child. That, therefore, any woman can
fling odium on the Jewish law, can only excite our pity towards
her. The innocence, honor and purity, and domestic, social,
and religious duties of wives, being more clearly and unanswer
ably developed in the sacred canon of the Mosaic law than in
any other, from the very simple fact that every other is founded
apon them.

PERIOD II. LAWS FOR WIDOWS. 173

CHATTER IV.

LAWS RELATING TO THE WIDOWS AND
DAUGHTERS OF ISRAEL.

BEFORE regarding the laws instituted for the widows of
Israel, let us pause one moment on the full tide of anguish and
unprotected isolation comprised to woman in that one word
" widow," that we may comprehend our Father's love to the
full extent. What woman's heart, awake to kind and generous
feelings, can look upon a widow without sympathy— without
the yearning prayer that consolation may be granted her, and
her fatherless babes find friends to guide them through a
stormy world ? We know no description so thrillingly power
ful of this, the heart's desolation, as the lines we subjoin.

" Lone sharer of a widowed lot,
Where is the language, though a Seraph hymned
The poetry of heaven, to picture thee,
Wrec'-ed as thou art, whose life has now become
Affliction's martyrdom ? for such is love
Doomed to remain on desolation's rock,
And look for ever where the past lies dead
What is the world to thy benighted soul ]
A dungeon ! Save that where thy children's tones
Can ring with gladness its sepulchral gloom.
Placid and cold, and spiritually pale
Art thou. Tne lustre of thy youth is dimmed,
Ths verdure of thy spirit o'er. In vain
The beaming eloquence of day attracts
Thy heart's communion with creation's joy.
Like twilight imaged on a bank of snow
The smile that waneth o'er thy marble cheek."

ROBERT MONTGOMERY.

Such, indeed, is the earthly sadness of the widow. One
with him who has departed, how may she tread the earth'a
dark vales alone ? Where look for love to supply the place of
that now gone ? Where find a father for those babes, clinging
to her for "that support, that love, which in her first bereave-

1V4 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

ment she feels utterly unable to bestow ? Where but in Him,
who in His law so especially provides for her and for her father
less children ; and, by his prophets, reinforces the statutes
already given, and brings forward their neglect as one of the
manifold sins which called down His displeasure ?

We find in his gracious word not alone the command, but
the severe penalty attached to its disobedience, first in Exodus
xxii. 22, 23, 24 : " Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless
child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all
unto ME, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath shall wax
hot, and I will kill you with the sword ; and your wives shall
be widows, your children fatherless."

Can any language more emphatically and forcibly denote the
tender mercy of the Eternal ? His love made their sorrows
His own. As a positive sin against Himself, He threatened to
afflict all those who dared afflict them by the infliction of simi
lar suffering. He knew that, left to man's mercy, the widow
and the fatherless would often meet with oppression, fraud, and
injustice ; be defrauded of their natural rights, and afflicted by
hard creditors. Not only as a widow, called upon to bear
" affliction's martyrdom," but as a mother, to behold her chil
dren a prey to suffering and want. In Israel this could not be.
The widow and the fatherless were God's own, for He knew
that not alone the wife, but the mother must be cared for.

" Leave thy fatherless children to ME," He said by His pro
phet Jeremiah, at a time when misery, desolation, and destruc
tion were falling on Judea and her sons for their awful iniquity.
" Leave them to ME, and I will keep them alive. And let thy
widows trust in ME." Even then, when disobedience and
idolatry had so cursed the land, that His wrath could no longer
be withheld, He reiterated the gracious promise given in His
taw. Sunk into the lowest ebb of iniquity, how could the
widow and orphan be protected if left to the care of man ?
Where might they look, at such a season, but to their God,
who for them alone had mercy and long suffering still ?

The ruin and worldly misfortunes and trials, so often now the
portion of the widow, could not exist in Israel. The nation at
large was commanded to provide for them, and in every feast
of offerings or of festivals, and in the ingathering of their corn,
and oil, and fruits, to include the widow and "the fatherless ;
laws not once, but several times repeated. " When thou cutteM

PERIOD II. LAWS FOR WIDOWS. 1?5

down tliy harvest in thy field, and hast forgotten the sheaf in
the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it, but it shall be for
the stranger, and the FATHERLESS, and the WIDOW, that the
Lord th} God may bless thee in all the works of thy hands.
When thou beatest thy olive tree thou shalt not go over tho
boughs again, it shall be for the stranger, the FATHERLESS, and
the WIDOW. When thou gatherest the grapes at thy vineyard,
thou shalt not glean it again, it shall be for the stranger, the
FATHERLESS, and the WIDOW."

Nor was this all. The tithes of wine, corn, and oil, the first
lings of herds and flocks, all of which were devoted to the
service of the Lord, that all worldliness and niggardliness should
be banished from Israel, and " they she aid learn to fear the
Lord their God always." The feast of Weeks and of the Taber
nacles, when the families of Israel rejoiced before the Lord in
the place which lie chose, the WIDOW and the FATHERLESS
were included. There was to be no affliction, no dependence,
no sorrow in Israel (though the poor were not to cease out of
the land) at these times. All were to rejoice before the Lord.
And yet more in addition : "At the end of three years thou
shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase the same year,
and lay it up within the gates. And the Levite, because he
hath no part nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger, and
the FATHERLESS, and the WIDOW, which are within thy gates,
shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied, that the Lord thy
God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou
doest." And so important was obedience to this statute, that
its profession was necessary in the confession of him who came
to offer the basket of first-fruits, as a sign of his having come
unto the land of his inheritance. " Then shalt thou say," pro
ceeded the instruction of the priest, " before the Lord thy God,
I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house,
and also have given them to the Levite and the stranger, and
the FATHERLESS and the WIDOW, according k> all thy command
ments which thou hast commanded. I have not transgressed
thy commandments, neither hare I forgotten them" (Deut.
xxvi. 12, 13).

Again, in Deut. xxiv. 17, it is not enough that we have
already heard, " thou shalt not afflict them," under the awful
penalty of similar affliction from the hand of God, but prohibi
tion as to the manner of that affliction is expressly pointed out.

176 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

"Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of
the FATHERLESS, nor take a WIDOW'S raiment to pledge." Why?
Because they had no earthly friend to redeem the latter, or plead
for the former. Weak and unguarded, they were exposed to
all these evils, had not the Eternal, in His tender compassion,
taken them under His own especial care ; and, instead of com
pelling them to depend on the insecure tenure of man's com
passion, or even justice, instituting laws for their benefit, the
disobedience of which was sin unto Himself.

Had these laws been obeyed, it was impossible for the widow
and the fatherless, however destitute they might have been left,
to suffer mere worldly ills. The agony of the widowed wife
could not be increased by the thought of how she was to pro
vide for her fatherless little ones. The Lord was their guardian,
and He gave her and her children the gentle care and affection
of their brethren in Israel ; bidding her cry unto Him in sorrow
or affliction, for He would assuredly hear her cry, and punish
those who called it forth.

What nation, then, what code, however just, however perfect,
ever framed such laws as these? "What nation," in truth,
" has God so near to them as Israel in all we call upon
Him for ?" Were no other laws relative to woman instituted,
these alone would be sufficient to mark that their very weakness
rendered them objects, even more than man, of compassion and
.love ; for where has God provided for man as for woman in the
desolation of her widowhood ?

That modern Judaism cannot obey these laws now, as
when they were given, interferes not with the fact of their
institution itself. Thi; verr charge, reiterated, enforced as it
is, elevates woman, and excites towards her, not alone the
humanity and tenderness, but the respect of man. How could
he feel otherwise towards those whom God Himself has pro-
rawed to protect ? What stronger incentive could he have to
be forbearing and gentle towards her, and in no way to afflict
her, than that if he failed in kindness, his wife should be
widowed, his children fatherless? Where shall we find a
law to disannul this, proceeding, as it does, from the mouth
of God ?

To the women of Israel, at the present day, how inexpressibly
consoling are these laws ! In form they can no longer be
obeyed ; but, as in the case of the statutes relating to wives, il

1> K It I O D II. LAWS FOR WIDOWS. 1 71

IB the spirit pervading them which we must take to our hearts,
till they swell in grateful thankfulness to Him who from Ilia
throne in heaven condescends to make widows His especial
care. And He does so now as then. God is immutable — a
Spirit of Truth, knowing not the shadow of a change ; and,
therefore, do we know and feel that the same love from which
issued those beautiful laws, actuates His dealings with his
people now. It is vain, utterly vain, to say we are cast off,
and, therefore, cannot claim it. The Bible teems with passages
relating to our banishment alone, and to the Eternal's deep love
borne towards us while in captivity, and, consequently, towards
us now. We could multiply passages on passages, from the
Pentateuch, Psalms, and Prophets, to prove this. But the very
words already quoted from Jeremiah would be almost sufficient.
When tliey were pronounced, the sins of Jerusalem were far
more heinous than those of Israel in her captivity. Yet even
then G<*d took the fatherless and the widow under His fostering
care ; separating them for the innocence of the one, and the
unprotected weakness of the other, from the mass of iniquity
which desecrated Judea.

As concerns His compassion towards us now, we shall find
them so distinctly, so clearly enforced in Leviticus xxiv.,
particularly from verse 40 to the end, and in the whole of
Deuteronomy xxx., that to doubt and keep back, from a suppo
sition of our inability to approach our God, and claim His love
in our captivity, becomes actual guilt, and is likely not only to
throw a wider and wider barrier between Him and ourselves,
but to expose us more dangerously than any other temptation
to the sophisms of the Nazarene, who, in mistaken kindness,
would terrify us from our sole rock of refuge and strength, by insist
ing that, cast out from the Lord's favor as we are, nothing can
save us from eternal perdition but the acceptance of their faith.
The more solid sense and unim passioned reason of man may,
arid do, effectually guard him from such danger ; but woman's
quicker feeling and more easily blinded judgment need all the
defence and rest in a divine love which the study of her own
farth, and its manifold manifestations of the Eternal as a God
of truth and love, alone can give. No argument is more likely
to weigh with a strong-feeling, unguarded woman, knowing
little or nothing but the mere formula of her own religion, than
.he idea, if pressed at a right moment, that the law of Moses a

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

a law of fire and blood, given only to destroy, and that th«
religion of Jesus is one of love; that Jewish women can have
no comfort in adversity, but that as Chiistians they will find all
they need ; that in the one Faith they must feel themselves
degraded, as in the other exalted and secure.

Now, without affecting actual creed at all, temntations like
these, unless fully and faithfully convinced that we, as women
of Israel, have privileges still higher, must on some dispositions
fell with sufficient weight as so to confuse and entangle, that
even belief is adopted ere we are at all aware of what we are

about. We Allude not to those whom reason only guides

who, cold, unimaginative, passionless themselves, laugh at feel
ing, because they know it not— who find philosophy always
sufficient for their need. But the larger portion of women, crea
tures of mere feeling and impulse, we would beseech to come
to the Word of God, and derive thence, in the days of youth
and happiness, that peace, love, and consolation, which if
unknown till " the evil days come, and the years when thou
shalt say, I have no pleasure in them," may be sought, from
very blindness and wilfulness, in a stranger fold. The aro-u-
ments we have quoted would fall to the ground by the simple
answer, that as women of Israel, we have ALL we need ; that
God revealed His deep love to us ages before He became known
to our Gentile sisters ; that while we possess His blessed Word,
we can never feel too unworthy to claim the tenderness he so
proffers^ _ He Himself has given us privileges in every relation
and position in life which no other nation has, except as derived
from us, and that, instead of fire and blood, the whole Jewish
law to woman teems with LOVE.

These feelings, inculcated in childhood, felt and experienced
m riper years, will be sufficient for woman, and enable her to
realize all the blessed consolation which every law relating
to her so spiritually bestows. Not to widows only, but to all
who are in affliction, the Divine spirit infusing every law must
bring comfort, by evincing how closely, how consolingly, she is
drawn to God.

Can the widow and the fatherless in Israel recall this truth,
yet not bless God that the record or His law is still our own,
granted that in times of dispersion and banishment we might
not despair, even though the form of the law rr ust be, till our
restoration, at an end? Oh, let the afflirtcd take comfort!

PERIOD II. LAWS FOR WIDOWS. 1 79

She has but to believe and obey, and the deep compassion of
her God will perfect both, and render them acceptable. Let
her but think on the magnitude of that love which has pro
vided for her both as widow and mother. That byname she is
singled out as especially the object of Divine solicitude, and,
therefore, that the Eternal knew and knows the heaviness of
her trial, the extent of her deep sorrow, the pressure of her cares.
Let her recall every law given for the widow and the fatherless,
and remember that lie who gave them knows not the shadow
of a change, and, therefore, feels for her now as tenderly as lie
did for her ancestors of old. What is time to Him ? Wo
look back with our finite gaze, and think there is such a wide
distinction between past and present, that the laws given for
the one can in no way concern the other. Customs, manners,
all of earth may change, but not the nature of the immortal
soul, nor of the human heart. From the beginning of the
world, until the end, these were, are, and will be the same.
And so is HE from whom they spring, and who guides and
cares for them now as when HE first grafted them into man.
What, then, is time to Him ? Can frail finite humanity believe
that time has changed His tenderness towards His afflicted
children ? Oh ! who would throw such scorn, such disrespect
on that word which repeats and enforces in every manner of
expression, " I, even I, am He, that change th not ; therefore ye
sons of Israel are not consumed ? " Let the widows of Israel
take to their hearts every law which manifests His love towards
.hem as widows. They are as much theirs now as at the
moment they were given. Let them not believe, for a single
moment, that the superior holiness of their ancestors gave them
greater favor in the sight of their God. He saith, u Not for
your own sakes will I do this, O Israel, for ye are a perverse
and rebellious generation, but for the sake of the covenant I
swore unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And
again, in strong confirmation, " For mine own sake, even for
mine own sake, will I do it ; for how should my name be pol
luted : and I will not give my glory to another." (Isaiah
xlviii.) With such words how may we hesitate ? Come unto
Him, ye widows of Israel, for je are His. Clasp to your
hearts His love. Think not ye can weary it, for " God is not
man, that He should lie, nor the son of man that he should
repent." Let no thought of unworthiness keep us back, for not

'80 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

in our own righteousness, but in His, must we trust. And oh
believe in Him, trust in Him ; and, as the widows of old, in
our very affliction we shall be comforted, and to the Gentiles
show forth His glory.

Our next section, the Daughters of Israel, while it principally
relates to the duties of our younger sisters as inferred from the
laws concerning them, also brings much important matter to
light, regarding the equality of women.

In every command and ordinance relative to obedience to
parents, to the eating of holy things (Levit. xi. 14; Deut. xii.
and xvi.), to appearing and rejoicing at the various festivals
(Deut. xvi.), daughters, equally with the sons, are so emphati
cally specified, that it is impossible to believe that the religious
as well as the moral duties of the law are not equally incumbent
on woman as well as man. It is useless to transcribe the verses
which point this out, as they will be found, in their own simple
force of expression, in the chapters of the Lord's own Word
quoted above. Were the maidens of Israel to keep aloof from
all religious observances, to be bound to household duties and
frivolous employments, become authorized to leave all the con
cerns of an immortal soul and of eternity to the care of fathers,
husbands, or brothers, we should find no mention of such a class
of beings. Nay, had the Eternal even intended that their fitness
or unfitness for His service should depend on the judgment of
man, we should still find only the sons mentioned. But to
remove this entirely, the attendance of the maidens of Israel at
every rejoicing, etc., becomes an absolute command from God,
and its disobedience, neglect, or change, was sin against Him
self. Such laws as those of Mezuzzot or Tephilim were given
in an indeterminate manner, requiring the aid of the priest to
decide who should wear the latter, and how use the former ;
but the obedience of the daughters of Israel, with their brothers,
unto every^ ordinance, is so clearly and simply put, that the
mind must indeed be perverted who would seek to deprive them
of such blessed privileges, and insist that religion is too deep a
thing for woman.

God bade woman as well as man love Him with heart, and
soul, and might ; knowing that to all who did so, the compre
hension of His will, His attributes, was comparatively easy, and
obedience to His every statute a labor of rejoicing and love. To

PERIOD II. LAWS FOR DAUGHTERS. 151

.earn and to feel this in youth, woman, equally with man, must
be taught to know and love the Lord, not left to the mere prac
tice of forms ; must be taught, that to appear at llis festivals, to
keep Ills ordinances, to obey His commandments, are privileges
of joy, granted to them in the fulness of God's love, and mark
the distinction between His rule and that of every other. They
would be led to compare their station and their privileges as
maidens of Israel, with those of the women of Greece and Rome,
and every contemporary nation, and, in more modern times,
with the women of many a Gentile land. Civilization, and a
study and practice of the moral laws of the Bible, are doing
their work, and pervading the customs and feelings of the Naza-
rene world ; but their guiding law breathes not the Eternal's
especial care for woman, in her every relation of life, more for
cibly than ours does.

That the daughters of Israel must have had the power to
obtain influence over their fathers, even to persuade them to
evil, is proved by their being specially named in the law already
quoted, regarding the punishment of all those, be they brother,
ion, DAUGHTEK, wife, or friend, who enticed to idolatry.

Again, we are told in Deut. vii. 2, 4, alluding to the care
needed to preserve the Israelites a holy people, and prevent all
communion with the idolatrous nations around : " Thou sluilt
make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them ; neither
shall thou make marriages with them ; thy DAUGHTER thou
shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take
unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following
ME, that they may serve other Gods, etc. For thou art an holy
people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all the people
that are upon the face of the earth."

" Son," in the sentence " for they will turn away thy son,"
etc., evidently signifies both son and daughter, as both are spe
cifically named in the preceding verse, and the Hebrew word 1?,
though always translated son, is equivalent to the English noun
child, for which there is no distinct Hebrew term. " Children
of Israel," is written in Hebrew exactly as if it were translated,
tt sons of Israel" (^7f? ^f1), but it evidently and unanswer
ably includes both sexes, by the words already quoted :
" Gather the people together, men, women, and children," and
•ther verses of similar import. As Israel had been already

182 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

warned against giving his daughter in marriage lo a son of
Canaan, she is, of course, included in the danger thence ensu<
ing, although only "son" is mentioned ; the plural meaning of
that " son" being evident from the pronoun following it being
they instead of he. " For they will turn aside thy child from
following ME, that THEY may serve other gods."

Now if nothing depended on women in Israel to uphold and
make manifest the glory of their God, in obedience to His law
and in serving Him, what necessity was there for this law ? If
her soul was of less moment than that of man, why should it
have been so carefully guarded from pollution ? This law of
itself would be sufficient to prove to the daughters of Israel their
solemn responsibility, not only individually, but nationally;
and we shall find still more.

In Numbers xxvii., we read that the daughters of Zelophehad
eame " before Moses, and all the princes of the congregation,"
and, ^ boldly stating the death of their father without sons,
inquired, " why should the name of our father be done away
from among his family because he had no sons? Give us,
therefore," they continued, " a possession among the brethren
of our fathers. And Moses brought their cause before the
Lord. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, The daughters
of Zelophehad speak right. Thou shalt surely give them a
possession of an inheritance among their father's brethren, and
thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto
them. And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying
If a man die, and have no son, then shall ye cause his inherit
ance to pass unto his daughter."

Now this simple narration very clearly proves that the civil,
as well as religious privileges were protected and insured. Here
are five unmarried women, most probably young, and acting on
no guidance but their own sense of right and justice, as incul
cated by the whole law of Moses, unhesitatingly addressing their
great Lawgiver, in presence of all the heads of Israel, and fear
lessly stating their case. Their position must have been one of
perfect freedom, or they could not so have sought Moses, and
not only been heard, but, because he did not feel himself ade
quate to pronounce a decision on a case never before occurring,
their cause was brought by him before the Lord, and God Him-
»elf deigned to reply. They had spoken right, the Eternal said ;

FERIOD II. LAWS FOR DAUGHTERS. 183

ihe inheritance should be as they said, rot only to them, bul
ever after, as a law in Israel.

\Ve see here, not only the daughters of Israel protected and
established in their birthrights, but the practical illustration of
the Eternal's gracious promise repeated in Deut. x. IT, 18, " For
the Lord your God is a God of gods and Lord of lords, a mighty
and a terrible, who regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward,
but does execute the judgment of the FATHERLESS and the
widow." The daughters of Zelophehad were fatherless ; per
chance (for such is human nature), surrounded by those who
disputed their right, deeming that woman could have no civil
privileges ; compelled to do violence to their feminine nature,
rtnd make an appeal ; whereupon God, not man, tc ok their judg
ment in His own hands and gave them right. The supposition
of their having to encounter human opposition, is further con
firmed by the event of the thirty-sixth chapter of Numbers.
The chief fathers of the tribe of Manasseh, to which Zelophehad
belonged, came before Moses and the heads of Israel, stating
the inconvenience of female inheritance, as being likely to be lost
by marriage with some other tribe ; and in the jubilee, when
every man returned to the inheritance of his fathers, the portion
inherited by daughters would be amalgamated with the inherit
ance of the tribe whereunto they were received. This difficulty,
to rnere human reasoning, would have seemed so to interfere
with the statute already given, that man would have been at a
loss how to overcome it. But that which God has once said,
He altereth not; and lie bade Moses inform the children of
Israel, that " the tribe of the sons of Joseph had said well. This
is the thing which the Lord doth command concerning the
daughters of Zelophehad, saying, LET THEM MARRY TO WHOM
THEY THINK BEST ; only to the tribe of the family of their father
shall they marry. And every daughter that possesseth an in
heritance in any tribe of the children of Israel, shall be wife unto
one of the families of the tribe of her father, that the children of
Israel may enjoy every man the inheritance of his fathers."

Even in this law, so important for the peace and harmony of
-he tribes of Israel, the Eternal disdained not to care also for
the temporal happiness of His weaker children, by expressly
stating, tlmt their choice was to be whom they think best;
oounded, indeed, by the tribe of their father, amongst whom as
they principally associated it was most natural their choicy

1 84 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

should fall. No ailitrary law interfered with domestic happi
Hess. Neither consanguinity, fortune, nor any of the modern
reasons, impelling unions of convenience, of ambition, or of any
kind but of the heart, interfered with woman's own choice of
happiness. Heiress in her own right, with none daring to in
terfere with the judgment of God Himself, she might seWt
whom she thought best to share the possessions accorded to
her. No human judgment, no thought of man, would have so
cared for woman. The law, indeed, might have been given, but
those impressive words, "Let them marry whom they think
best," speak but of the omniscient care and infinite love of God.

The law of vows we have already enlarged upon in our second
section, the wives of Israel ; yet, as its ordinance concerns the
daughters of Israel also, we must briefly recur to it. The nature
of those vows, and in what manner they are liable to abuse, we
bave already seen. A daughter might, perhaps, more easily
than a wife, devote herself by a singular vow to the service of
Jie Lord, but more easily also be led into its abuse. A young
woman (for it is to such the laws refer — see Numbers xxx. 16),
while in her father's house, performs her duty to her God, and
proves her zeal in His service to greatest perfection, while evinc
ing her obedience to the fifth commandment, and devoting
herself as much as possible to the comfort and happiness of her
parents, and to all the unobtrusive claims of home. This, as
we have said before, is often neglected during the early enthu
siasm of first religious impressions, and the wish to do some
thing great and striking, to evince the fervor of her professions,
occupies the mind to the exclusion of all else. This, in Israel,
is effectually guarded against, by rendering the daughter de
pendent in some measure on the will of her father, and by so
doing increasing the veneration, love, and submission, which,
did she obey the fifth commandment, she could not fail to bear
him, at the same time guarded, like the wife in Israel, from all
capriciousness or indecision, and the petty trials thence pro
ceeding.

That she Lad the power, even when in her youth in her
father's house, of devoting herself by a vow unto the Lord,
clearly evinces that even young women had access to the Eter
nal, and their prayers and service were graciously accepted by
Him, without any interference of man.

This is the spirit of the law concerning us most nearly now

PERIOD II. LAWS LOR D A. U f} H T E B. S . J 85

md which every young daughter in Israel should lovingly
remember, that young, lowly, weak as she is, and dependent as
she may be, she has yet the glorious privilege of devoting her
self to the service of her God. No longer, indeed, by a singular
vow, calling upon her to depart from home duties, and affections,
for outward service, nor by a binding oath to afflict the soul by
departure from her usual" food and innocent amusements, but
simply by associating the love of God and hope of His approval
with all her thoughts, and the meek and unpretending effort to
make manifest spirituality and holiness in every action, every
trial, every blessing of her life. This will be less difficult to
accomplish if she do but study, heartfully and prayerfully, His
precious word, arid read there, borne out by the whole beautiful
world of nature, the blessed record of God's unfailing love ; if
she will but persevere in trust and prayer, and not despair if
many many times she turns seemingly unanswered from the
Fount of living waters, and her earthly nature tempt her tc put
her A-hole trust in "cisterns, broken cisterns that will hold no
water." This was Israel's sin, which, more powerfully than any
other, at length hurled on her the Eternal's long-averted wrath ;
and, knowing this, we shall sin threefold now if we strain not
every nerve to resist all such specious coloring of earth, and
cleave under every difficulty, spite of disappointment, of despond
ency, of doubt, unwaveringly to the Lord.

But let not the young daughter of Israel, rejoicing in her fond
enthusiasm that she is so specially designated in His law,
believe that to do His work is easy and all joy, as at Srst it
seems. There must come a time, if she truly seek and pray to
love Him, that He will try that love ; not, it may be, with the
afflictions publicly acknowledged as such, but with the coldness,
deadness, utter stagnation of the spirit, as if all of religion,^ or
even intevast in religious things, had entirely departed. This
is the most fearful period in the religious experience of the
young. They doubt every feeling of piety which had been
theirs3 before. They mentally ask, why should they be different
to their more worldly companions, who are ever happy, ever
ga> ? Why should they voluntarily resign such pleasures for a
service that, instead of bringing comfort, does but make them
miserable ? Were they not over presumptuous to have supposed
for a moment that God could care for such as they, and would
it not be wiser and better to join the multitude, who, living but

186 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

for earth and time, never cast a thought on heaven and eteruty
for to whom can they express feelings so impossible to be
believed or understood ?

Oh ! let not such periods of trial turn the daughter of Israel
from that better path which an earlier age has chosen. Come
indeed they must, for God thus tries the extent of His children's
love. The truly, sincerely, spiritually religious of every creed,
of every class, have experienced all that they may feel. It is
the dread " phantom of the threshold," which must be resisted
by its only all-subduing foe — that faith which can ascend on
the wings of prayer, and trust in God to give cornfoit, hope,
and joy. It is no proof of superior holiness, of more rapid
advancement in the one straight path, where these emotions are
unknown. It is rather an unanswerable evidence that the spirit
yet sleeps, unawakened to its weakness, its dependence. It does
not yet know the workings of the Lord within ; or that its
fancied strength may be broken as a reed. Oh ! let not the
young daughter of Israel, when bowed and sorrowing beneath
the strange despondency of heart and thought, envy these.
God hath not departed from her. He doth but try the strength
of her faith and love. If comfort, if spiritual joy always attended
on religious service, where would be that necessity for faithful
ness and constancy ? Where the trial of love, if ever coupled
with reward ? Where its strength, its durability, if the first
moment the object of its aspirings appear to forsake, to darken
His countenance towards them, it takes wing to some more
rewarding god? Would we love a mortal thus ? And shall
we do less for God, who^e love we know to be so unending, so
infinite, so exhaustless, and who never in reality withdraws it,
though to try us He permits the human infirmities of frame to
produce the darkness under which we pine ?

Would we, in truth, follow the example of our ancestors, and
devote ourselves to our God, we must endure this meekly and
trustingly, as we would any more tangible evil, or more visible
affliction. And even when this is removed, through His loving
mercy, and again our souls spring up rejoicing, though more
chastened, let us still " remember the days of darkness, for they
shah be many." Religion in no way saves us from afflictions,
but it supports us under them. It gives us what nothing else
can give, the unvarying comfort of a Father's l<*ve, and an
unfailing hope in heaven.

PERIOD II. LAWS FOR D A U O 1» i K R 8 . 187

As in former ages a young woman could not devote herself
ay a singular vow without the approval of her father, although
with her spiritual feelings he had no power to interfere, so now
let every daughter of Israel abstain from every public or pre
sumptuous evidence of religious profession which can interfere
with the prejudices of her parents. The spirit of that beautiful
religion which was granted to us, and which will again be ours,
was " to turn the heart of the fathers to their children, and th<j>
hearts of the children to their fathers ;" not to sow dissension
and disunion. Whatever a young woman may feel, however
grieve at what she may think is wanting in the theoretical or
practical religion of her parents, it is her duty to pray and wait.
God will answer in His own time, but it is no part of her duty
either to condemn or cease to love. No parent will interfere
with a child's religion, if, instead of being obtruded upon him,
it does but guide alike conduct and feeling, impel obedience
and cheerfulness, and strengthen to endure. The motive of these
superior characteristics an irreligious and unbelieving parent
may not, indeed, for long years perceive; but, almost uncon
sciously, he will learn to respect the prejudices of such a child ;
and if, indeed, it may please God to permit such earthly recom
pense, she may be the blessed means of leading him to tbe
same God, the same immortal goal.

But this can never be if she obtrude religion, or in the
slightest degree evince a supposition of her own superior holi
ness. It is indeed one of the hardest trials in life, to see any
one of those whom we most love perseveringly reject all we
feel the dearest, most important. But if we bring it before
God, He will give us strength to continue constant in prayer
for them, and lessen the evil we deplore. The case of a parent
refusing to let his child serve God, and make religion her first
object, is utterly unknown in Israel ; but should it be, in this
instance only a child Is imperatively called upon to disobey.
The commands of an earthly parent must be disregarded, if
they interfere with and compel disobedience to the commands
of God. Leviticus xix. 29 authorizes our upholding this.
Although the case itself, in which there is a daughter guarded
from an unnatural father, be different in details, yet it is equally
protective in the present instance ; and a child may be fully
assured, if the command of her father compel disobedience to
aer God in any one of llis commandments (for all are of equal

188 TH.fi WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

sanctity to the one alluded to in the verse quoted), her painful
duty must be to disobey.

But a state of things so fearful can never be in Israel, if a
daughter's religion be practised as we have hinted above.

There may be indifference, there may be the apparent absence
of all spiritual religion ; but no man who wishes to be thought
an Israelite, ever neglects the peculiar forms of his faith, and his
daughter, therefore, has no cause for dividing herself from him,
however more earnest, more spiritual, may be her individual
views. She may have to bear with the neglect or disregard of
Borne ordinances which her heart tells her are sacred, but if she
have the will she has the power to keep her own way undefined ;
and if she be truly and sincerely a daughter of Israel, every
parental disregard of holy things will bring her to her God yet
more earnestly in prayer.

One other point we would urge ere we quit the subject. Let
not Israel's young daughters fancy, that to devote heart, mind,
and soul to God, demands the relinquishment of those innocent
pleasures and enjoyments for which God himself has framed our
hearts. There are many among the Gentiles who believe reli
gion wholly incompatible with recreation arid amusement ; that
all social pleasures must be resigned ; only certain books perus
ed and even some accomplishments forbidden, as likely to lead
to sin. The religion of God is, on the contrary, so consistent
with man's capabilities and yearnings, that we never can believe
these things incumbent upon us. The first grand object of our
lives, in truth, it must be ; and that gained — which, if we incul
cate the immortal spirit of religion as well as its more perishable
form unto our children, it will be — we need not fear that enjoy
ment either of social intercourse or of intellectual resources will
turir. us from it. God has framed us to give and to receive plea
sure. He has stored our hearts with sweet emotions, our minds
with inexhaustible resources. We best make manifest our deep
and grateful sense of His loving-kindness by its enjoyment.
" God loveth a cheerful giver," we have somewhere read. And
in no religion is this sentiment so truly, practically illustrated as
in ours, coming, as it does, from God Himself. A knowledge of
ourselves, which, if we are accustomed in youth to examine our
hearts by the standard of God's word, we shall undoubtedly
obtain, will warn us of those weaknesses and failings most likely
to lead us in*o temptation ; and we shall guard against these,

PERIOD II. — LAWS FOR DAUGHTERS, 189

and either conquer them through His infused grace, or shun
them till the strength we implore is granted. There is no need
to become different in seeming from our fellows, and tacitly con
demn and chide every innocent amusement and resource by our
refusal to join in them. The idea that no amusement is inno
cent, that nothing we do, think, or feel is free from sin, is not —
blessed be God !— the creed of Israel. He hath appointed our
religious and moral duties ; He hath laid down our earthly path ;
He°hath taught us how to look to Him, and how by faith we
shall be justified, and through His infinite mercy be received
with Him. He hath stored our souls and minds with exhaust-
less capabilities of happiness, even upon earth. He hath gather
ed around us in His beautiful world a thousand objects to call
forth love, gratitude, and joy ; and He who is truth and justice
would not have done these things, were we so incapable of
righteousness, as from our birth to be blackened with such sin &s
only blood can wash away.

Let me not be misunderstood, or accused of contradicting my
own theory, so to speak, for my theory is the theory of the Bible.
Liable to every weakness — more inclined to the evil than the
good — We are ; but such is inherent from the time that our hea
venly origin was changed and marred by the dominion of the
passions, infirmities, and weakness of earth. And it was for
such beings the law was given, to aid them to subdue natural
corruption5, to give them opportunities to exercise righteousness,
virtue, and faith ; to awaken the immortal part of our nature ;
to arouse all those better, higher, and purer feelings, which, how
ever dormant, cannot die, for they have been breathed into us
by the spirit of the Lord ; and for which, if we neglect and let
them ever sleep, because we fancy we either possess them not, or
are too closely bound to arouse them, we shall be called to a
fearful account. Not one single point of the Eternal's precious
word — the Bible which we acknowledge — authorizes a belief in
the Gentile creed.

The particular mention of the superior sanctity of the priests'
daughters, evinces that the holiness of the fathers was shared by
the daughters. They were to partake of the holy meats, not
only in their youth ; but if widows, or divorced, without child
ren, had the power of returning to their father's house. A fur-
*her proof of the holiness incumbent on her as the daughter of
the Eternal's appointed servant, and one who had power by hei

190 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

conduct either to exalt or "profane her father," we find, in Lork
xxi. 9, a different and more awful death appointed for her, if she
became sinful, than the usual mode of Hebrew executions.
These laws, of course, cannot concern us now (though would
that they could, our priests being, as they ought to be, the first
in rank and consequence of our nation), but "the spirit 01" them,
as of every other relative to the women of Israel, tends to mark
their equality, their elevation, and their immortal responsibility,
so forcibly as to prevent all possible rejoinder. Were the pray
ers of man sufficient for the welfare of woman — had she no
individual soul to render account of — there would be less neces
sity to notice the wives and the daughters of the priests than any
other. The superior sanctity of their husbands and fathers
would surely be more than sufficient for them. • We trust, how
ever, we have said enough to con vince our young sisters that, as
Daughters of Israel, they have higher and nobler privileges than
the daughters of any other race ; that their God Himself has
deigned to give laws and ordinances for their especial guidance
and protection, which cannot be gainsaid without verging on
impiety. And that, therefore, much, very much, depends on
them, one and all, to uphold His glory through their own reli
gious and moral dignity, and give evidence, alike to their own
hearts, and to those nations, by word, thought, and deed, that
they need nothing more than their own beautiful religion to guide
them through earth and time, and fit them for eternity and bea
ven. They can do this, and will they fail 3

CHAPTER V.

MAID SERVANTS IN ISRAEL, AND SUNDRY
OTHER LAWS

OUR fifth section alludes to a class which (we say it with
no longer exists amongst us, and, therefore, can only be
apon as a still further proof of the Eternal's loving CAM

PERIOD II. LAWS VOR SERVANTS. 191

for His female children. It cannot guide us till once more we
have maid-servants of our own faith amongst us. How often,
how constantly, this subject has engrossed the thoughts and
wishes of the writer, that by any possible means, the daughters
of our poorer and dependent brethren could be received as
domestics in our families, and so enable us to adhere to the
laws framed for them, can be known but to the Searcher of all
hearts ; for when spoken to man, the idea is received but as
high-flown folly, impossible to be realized. If so considered by
the mass, there is no help for it, and so it must remain till it
please God to put His spirit once more within us, and emighten
the darkness which, in some instances, has gathered around us,
rich and poor.

That it is only the rich and influential who can bring about
reform in our poorer classes we quite acknowledge. Their reli
gious education must be carried on on a different basis. The
spirit and meaning of every form must be inculcated, or they
can never rise from the ignorance and superstition in which,
through long ages of fearful persecution, they are plunged. The
ramd and heart alike must be enlarged ; their own dignity,
their own responsibility inculcated ; the distinction between
essential and local laws ; the superior, the unchangeable sanc
tity of the law of God, combined with reverence and love for
the fence which good, and wise, and holy men have raised
around it. Were these things inculcated, there would be many
eager to accept the offers of service in Jewish families, and find
their obedience to their God quite compatible with their duty
t« their employers. Of course we allude not to those establish
ments in which but one or two servants only are kept. We
simply mean those classes where there are upper and lower
domestics — where one day in the week the former may not be
called upon either for servile work, or to break through any of
the forms which hallow the Sabbath day. There are such
things, we have heard, as head nurses, who, even though Gen
tiles, have nothing to do with the servile work of their nursery
kingdoms. Ladies' maids, who have nothing to do but needle
work, dress hair, and attend to their mistress and young ladies.
Housekeepers, even housemaids, where there are upper and
•ower. All these situations might, were they properly educated
for it, be filled by the maid-servants in Israel, without interfer
ing one tittle with their adherence and obedience to their Faith

192 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Fliere must, indeed, be a WILL on both sides, the employers
and the employed, but were that WILL found, the WAY would
be easy.

Every law instituted in Israel for the safety, happiness, and
welfare of the man-servant, mentioned by name the maid-servant
also. IP. obedience to the fourth commandment, in the protec-
jon of the tenth, in every festival and fast, every ordinance
binding on Jewish families as well as individuals, we find the
maid-servant expressly named ; thus proving that, though her
actual rank was subordinate, though her duties were distinct,
she was as carefully and tenderly provided for as the daughters
of a family themselves. Even in the eating of holy things,
which some might suppose a privilege only granted to the heirs
of households, she was associated. No man could rejoice before
the Lord by himself; sons, daughters, widows, fatherless, men-
servants, and MAID-SERVANTS, all were included, and so distinctly
enumerated, that not one could be omitted without a decided
breach of law. The twenty-first chapter of Exodus and fifteenth
chapter of Deuteronomy treat powerfully on the protection and
kindness demanded towards male and female domestics. The
simple words, " they shall not go out as men-servants do,"
reveal the loving care for their protection, that they should not
be exposed to all the rougher labor of the field and out-door
service incumbent on the males. To sell her to a strange
nation, which would be the natural desire of the injurer and
the deceiver, to conceal his sin, no man had power ; for, if he
did so, she could not regain her freedom at the end of seven
years, and be restored to her family, as was the law in Israel.
If he betrothed her to his son, she was to become even as a
daughter ; and if, as was the custom of the East, another wife
were taken, her food, her raiment, her duty of marriage, he had
no power to diminish. If he failed in either, she was free and
spotless, alike in the sight of God and man. These beautiful
laws appear, not only pretty convincing of the equality of
female servants with their male brethren in the same class, but
rather a startling manifestation of the falsity of the charge, that
wives in Israel are degraded and abased. If even a female
elave, when raised to become the wife of her master's son, was
to be regarded as a daughter, to retain her every privilege as
first-selected wife, however the capricious heart of her husband
might select another of his own rank, we rather imagine t.hat

PERIOD 11. LAWS FOR SERVANTS. 193

every grade of Hebrew wives was equally protected by the
Lord, and that no man whatever had power to degrade them.

All injury committed on a female servant exposed her master
to punishment of equal severity as the injury of a male. He
dared do her no hurt, for if he did, whether through prede
termination or momentary passion, she was his slave no longer.
She had power to appeal from him to the representatives of her
God, His priests, and she knew justice would be done her, for
to do it was the ordinance of God. And, even without injury,
the term of servitude was over in the seventh year. The
extremity of destitution might have compelled a parent to sell,
or rather to devote, his child to servitude; or reasons less
imperative might urge his doing so, knowing that his children,
even though they worked, would be better provided for, and
perhaps more easily enabled to keep every ordinance of the Lord,
in the family of their master, than struggling on for a scanty
subsistence, nominally free. The poor were not to cease out of
the land, that the people might obey the words of their God,
in which He bade them, " Open thine hand wide unto thy poor
brother, to thy poor and to thy needy in thy land ;" and then,
as a practical illustration of how the hand is to be opened wide,
we are told that when our brother a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew
woman, has been sold, and served in a family six years, we were
not only to let him, or her, go free, which, did we act according
to the finite judgment of man, there would be many to think
sufficient ; but they were to be furnished liberally out of the
flock and the floor (i. e. barn, meaning corn), and out of the
wine-press ; of all wherewith the Lord had blessed us we were
to give unto them. And not satisfied with having already
mentioned the Hebrew woman, as included with the Hebrew
man, in these laws, the law again enforces the equal rights of
both, by repeating, " and also unto thy maid-servant thou shalt
do likewise ;" adding, with that exquisite spirit of love infused
through every law, " It shall not seem hard unto thee, when
thou sendest him away free from thee, for he has been worth a
double hired servant, in serving thee six years, and the Lord thy
God shall bless thee in all thou doest." Now, had there been
no other mention of woman, these beautiful laws would have
Deen sufficient to prove her equality with man in the sight of
the Eternal. The illustration of these laws was given before
Ihe precept, in the Most High's dealings with Hagar, as we have

194 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

already seen ; as a bond-slave, and one not even of His cliosen.
He had compassion and love for her ; and that His people
should endeavor as strongly as lay in their power to follow in
His own paths, He laid down statutes, the obedience to which
would make every maid-servant as much the object of her
master's care, tenderness, and liberality, as Hagar had been to
Him.

The command relative to the maid-servants' attendance at
the feast of holy things, on every Sabbath festival, etc., is rather
convincing of religion being as incumbent on her as on man ;
nay, that her master himself was liable to punishment if he
neglected to associate her, as well as every other of his house
hold, in his religious exercises.

Some over-refined natures are horrified at the idea of being
sold to service — of the very term slave (the Hebrew word ^D^
by the way, signifies servant or domestic also) ; and, taking up
the position that the law of Moses countenanced similar traffic
as the slave trade in all its modern horrors, make it the grand
objection to regarding the religion as the revelation of God.
Yet no one who really studies the Word of God, can entertain
an idea so erroneous for a moment. Perpetual slavery — that
awful sacrifice of all home affections, all human emotions, that
horrible system which permitted man to regard his brother man
as a beast of the field, to be bought and sold, live and die at his
will — was utterly unknown in Israel. The term " selling" a
son or daughter, simply signified the receiving beforehand the
price of six years' labor, in which six years the slave (so called)
was equal to his master in everything but actual labor. He
was to share in every feast, every rejoicing, sit at his master's
table, listen to the law, accept every covenant of God, be
clothed, fed, and cared for, and at the term of his release be so
liberally treated individually, as to enable him, if he pleased, to
quit service, and enter into independent business for himself, 01
remain, from pure affection or voluntary relinquishment of
freedom, for ever with his master. This was the actual state of
slavery in Israel, productive of a three-fold good. It saved
many a parent from beholding the utter destitution of his
children ; gave him the means of working for himself by the
price received for their six years' labj>r, assured him of their
temporal and spiritual welfare and of their being cared for, on their
release, far better than he could for them, much as he loved

PERIOD II.— LAWS FOR SERVANTS. 105

them ; prevented all those horrible incentives to crime and
misery produced by the abject destitution of many a Gentile
land ; united master and servant in the sweet and holy ties of
brotherhood, alike of religion, tribe, and land ; subject to one
law, worshipping one God, caring for the helpless and the weak,
and making every household where the laws of God were
obeyed one of heavenly harmony and love. In Israel there was
no surplus of hands for work ; none of those fearful temptations
to sin in being thrown out of employ, in the inability to meet
the heavy taxes and other drains upon the pocr. The law in
its every item spoke of God, and revealed Him as a God of
love. He alone could have framed statutes entering into every
man's household, guiding his conduct from his parents to his
very servants ; shielding, compassionating, loving every indi
vidual in Israel, from the high priest to the lowest slave.

Having now regarded all the laws instituted expressly for
woman, in her several positions of mother, wife, widow, daughter,
maid-servant, we have but to throw together all the remaining
statutes relating to her generally. In every offering, be it of
trespass, of thanksgiving, or of purification, we find in Leviticus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy, woman was so emphatically
included as to be the subject of laws set apart for herself. Tlte
ordinances were binding on both man and woman, and c«re
expressly taken to mark the guiding line of obedience for both.
There was nothing left for inference, but all which was neces
sary was distinctly laid down. In the very particular law for
lepers, woman was named as well as man. Nothing was left
Ao human judgment ; every item concerning its treatment, its
CJR, and its purification, precisely written down. In the laws
for the Nazarite (Numbers vi.), woman is specified so clearly,
that it is utterly impossible to retain a doubt of her service
being equally acceptable, or that she had not the same power
as man, to separate herself by a vow unto the Lord. That
which was to guide man in this devotion, must equally have
been given to guide her, or we should not see it so expressly
stated, " when man or WOMAN shall separate themselves to vow
the vow of a Nazarite," etc. A woman who could wish to
devote herself, appears to us to have been an independent
single woman, and, therefore, not one of the daughters and wives
specified in the latter law regarding vows, which, judging from
9

196 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

the beautiful precision of the laws of God, would, had it alluded
to the Nazarites, have been so expressed. The singular vov»
mentioned in Leviticus xxvii., including, as every other ordi
nance, woman as well as man, may or may not relate to the
same kind of vows as mentioned in Numbers xxx. But whether
it be or not, the law for the respective valuation of male and
female service, proves that woman could make a singular vow,
and either fulfil or redeem it with equal freedom and acceptance as
man. That her service was valued at a less rate, is no proof of her
inequality, but simply that the service she could render the Temple
was, from the weakness of her frame, and the retiring nature of
her sex, of less use and importance than man's. Compare the
work and capability of a man from the age of twenty to sixty,
to those of a woman during the same period. There would be
full the worth of " twenty shekels" difference. After the age
of sixty, or in early childhood, the difference of valuation was
much less, because the capabilities of both drew nearer each
other. We see, then, the real meaning of these differing esti
mations. The law of God, while it elevates and spiritualizes
woman to an equal share of immortality and responsibility
before Him, in no way permits or encourages her coming unduly
forward or exalting herself above man. Her weaker frame, her
less mighty mind, her more easily excited emotions, all mark
the necessity of a more retiring and dependent station. She
may contend for equal earthly rights, she may deem our Asser
tion of her inferior capabilities of frame and mind an unfounded
aspersion cast upon her, she may say she is equally independent,
equally strong, in reason and power, yet to prove this, we fear
she will not find quite so easy. Certainly not by the word of
God, her only sure test of reason and feeling. And how much
more just and graceful is her voluntary adherence to her own
allotted path, and her determination to adorn that path with all
the winning qualities, the devotedness, the affections, peculiar to
her own sex, than the vain struggle to be in all things as man ;
a struggle in which she can but make manifest her weakness,
and finally be so vanquished, that even her natural claims are
denied her, or conceded as a favor, not as a right.

The equality which we contend for (and which we uphold is
BO clearly demonstrated, in not only our holy law itself, but in
the mention of every female of the Bible), is not, in our capa
bility, our station, humanly considered, but simply as immorUd

PERIOD II. MISCELLANEOUS LAWS

197

children of the Most High ; having equal access to IIis gracious
ear, equal power to win his condescending reply, equal respon
sibility in the performance of our every duty, m the just exer
cise of our several faculties ; which faculties, so peculiarly adapted
by our merciful Father to our wants, happiness, and duties, are
of equal valuation in Tlis sight as those of man. This is woman's
equality, proved by the very law which, by some misguided
spirits, may be twisted into her abasement. What would be
the need of marking her human valuation, if she had not the
power of devoting herself by a singular vow unto the Lord, in
any period of ber life, from a month old to above sixty ? Or,
if she have no access to God, save through man, what could be
the use of her vow ? Were she to be degraded morally and
mentally, whe-e would be even her inclination for this spiritual
service ? Surely there need not have been any reference to her
in this law, if the women of Israel were to be considered slaves
and heathen?.

By this tv enty-seventh chapter of Leviticus, we see too that
female infants might be devoted by their parents to the Lord,
another beautiful and unanswerable manifestation of their per
fect equality with their brothers from their very birth, and must
entirely do away with the idea that has been so idly brough*
forward, that the festival attending the naming of male children
in Israel, compared with the quiet reception of the female, at
once proves in what an inferior light the latter is regarded.
The festivity which hails the entrance of the new-born son of
Israel into the holy covenant of his fathers, is an immemorial
national usage, descending to us from " the time that Abraham
made a great feast, the day that Isaac was weaned," and has
nothino- whatever to do with the claims of one sex over the other.
To my own heart, the different reception of male and female
children is an exquisite illustration and type of their respective
paths. The world and man must be the theatre and the fellow-
actor of the boy ; he must go forth armed with a religious heart
and unbending spirit to meet the temptations of pleasure, ambi
tion, and a host of other passions and emotions, which must
assail his more public path. But, to the girl, home is her
theatre, her God her only stay. Why should festivity and idle
revelry hail the birth of one, in whose own heart must be her
ourest pleasures, distinct from every pleasure (so called) of the
world ; whose path must be one of quiet and unostentatious

198 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

retirement and usefulness ? Her name is given in the house of
God, and by one of His elected servants. Taken to the most
Jicly place, which, in our captive and desolate state, His house
presents, by that ceremony to be received into the congregation
of His people, does the female babe need more ? Cannot the
Hebrew mother thus realize the devoting her child to the faith
and service of her God, more powerfully, more solemnly, than
in even the festive circle which gathers round to hail the naming
of her boy ? We think, were these several rites more seriously
considered, the idle charge we have quoted above, merely to
disprove it, would find little resting in the heart of our fellows.

The express prohibition relating to woman's adopting, on any
pretence whatever, the garments of the male, is another beauti
ful ordinance marking her natural sphere, and proving that any
departure from it was not acceptable to the Lord. It was not
only the act itself which is so forcibly brought forward, that
Deut. xxii. 5 tells us, " All that do so are abomination unto the
Lord thy God," but the thoughts and feelings included in such
an act, the temptation to depart from the retirement, the
modesty, the purity of that home station which woman should
BO quietly fulfil. Were she not an equally responsible moral
and religious agent as man, why need this law have been
given ?

Again, we find that women who have wrought wickedness,
women who have a familiar spirit (that is, sought to deceive by
pretended spells and enchantments), women who have enticed
to idolatry — all these, as well as similar sinners amidst the
males, were to be stoned to death on the evidence of two wit
nesses. Now the very power to work such wickedness, supposes
a perfect freedom of thought and will, wholly distinct from the
power of man. Were woman so entirely the slave of man that
her very prayers must be guided by his, and could only be
acceptable through him, there could be no justice in condemning
her as a free agent ; her sins must be the sins of her father or
husband, not her own, if her merit were only acceptable through
his. She could not possibly be bound to obey the law, or
punished for its disobedience, if it were only given to, and incum
bent on, man. If she were to be made a slave and heathen, how
does it happen that, wherever there can be a doubt as to both
sexes being included, either in religious observances, or pro
hibiting of customs which were abominatior unto the Lord

PERIOD II. MISCELLANEOUS LAWS. 199

WOMAN is expressly mentioned in conjunction with man ? The
very wrath threatened in case of her trangression proves her
equality quite as powerfully as the rewards promised to obedi
ence, and the laws instituted for her adherence.

Three times a year it was a positive enjoinment for every male
to appear before the Lord in the place appointed for His temple.
That woman was not included by name, was, instead of being a
proof of her lesser importance and responsibility, a beautiful
manifestation of that divine tenderness and justice, which, in
their perfection and prescience, God only could display. A
nameless variety of causes might intervene to prevent woman's
leaving her home in the distant provinces of Judea to accom
pany her father and husband to Jerusalem. Many a man might
be enabled to obey the law himself, who would have been pre
vented doing so, had he been under a positive command to
bring with him wife and children.

Locomotion is man's native element, and he can more often
indulge in it without interfering with home duties than woman.
It was right and just, that he who so frequently travelled for
pleasure should do so three times a year in obedience to the will
of God. But many causes, in her own physical inability or
maternal anxiety in the illness of some member of her family,
might occur to prevent woman, and therefore the law was not
made binding upon her, as it was on man.

That this distinct mention of " all thy males'' in no way
degraded her, however, is clearly proved by the simple fact of
her being required, when it was possible, and in all her positions
in life, to rejoice before the Lord in his appointed festivals, to
listen to the reading of His law at the Feast of Tabernacles, to
attend to the offerings instituted expressly for her, to abstain
from all wickedness and idolatry, and to come unto the Lord in
every event, thought, act, desire, public or private, of her life.
" Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God," Moses
exclaims, in the twenty-ninth chapter of Deuteronomy ; '_' your
captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all
the men of Israel, your little ones, your WIVES, and the strangei
that is in thy camp, from the hewer of wood to the drawer of
water, that thou shouldst enter into covenant with the Lord thy
God, and into His oath, that He may establish thee to-day for
a people unto Himself, and that He may be unto thee a God,
as He hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy

200 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you
only do I make this covenant and this oath, but with him tha'
standeth here with us this day before the Lord our God, and
also with him who is not here with us this day, lest there should
be among you any man, woman, family, or tribe, whose heart
turneth away this day to go and serve the gods of these
nations."

In these few verses, and yet more powerfully in the whole
chapter, to which we entreat our readers to turn, we have all
which, as women of Israel, we need to seal the scriptural truth
and basis of the position which we have adopted and set forth.
Every class, grade, and condition of women, as of men, must
have been present when Moses spoke these emphatic words — all
included in the terms, " little ones and WIVES." And they
heard, that Moses addressed not only them, but their descendants,
lest any man, WOMAN, family, or tribe, should, by their idol
atry, or other transgression, hurl down on the whole nation the
awful curses which he proceeds to enumerate. Would he, need
he, have been thus particular, were the women of Israel destined
to be but slaves to man, nonentities before God ? Alas ! what
ever the falsely accusing Gentile, or mistaken Hebrew, may
assert, we have but fearful evidence in the monarch of Israel of
the influence of woman, manifesting too terribly the prophet's
prescience in including her, as leading herself and man to sin,
and so hastening the great and terrible wrath of the Lord.

We have now drawn to the conclusion of our Second Period,
the women of Israel's most momentous era : the delivery and
establishment of that law, which, in the very midst of revolu
tions, changes, new creeds, and their awful persecutions, — in the
very midst of denial, abuse, and heavy darkness, — yet remains
the hope, the guide, the protection, the defence, the elevation of
woman, whatever her station, whatever her country, ave, and
whatever her creed may be ; — more especially the "blessed
inheritance of the females of that people on whom our God Him
self bestowed it, and one, therefore, which should be their glory,
their privilege, their delight, to render so exalted, by their indi
vidual and national conduct, in the sight of a Gentile world,
that none dare fling odium on the female Jewish name, or seek
to heathenize and degrade them.

We have sought to bring together every law relative to wo
man ; but the subject is so momentous, the field so wide, we

PERIOD II. MISCELLANEOUS LAWS. 201

can scarce hope we have accomplished it as fully as we could
wish. We can only hope and pray, that a perusal of those pages
may lead our sisters in Israel to seek their foundation yet more
earnestly than the frail superstructure, and find for themselves,
in their Bibles, all that we may have omitted, or failed to treat
as largely as we might. The more our beautiful law is studied,
the more must we feel, that, as women, we are especially
objects of the Eternal's loving protection and care ; that we are
privileged in every feeling as well as every act to come to Him,
alike in thanksgiving and prayer ; that we have no need what
ever, in obtaining our eternal welfare, for the aid and interfer
ence of man. The more we study, the more we must feel that
we have, as women of Israel, a station to uphold alike before
God and man ; that as the first, the only people to whom God
Himself deigned to provide a law, we should be the very first in
holiness, purity, spirituality, and divine love, amid the nations.
We may be captives, we may be awhile under the Eternal's
wrath, but that truth in no way lessens our responsibility, or
diminishes the necessity for our firmly upholding our heavenly
heritage and guiding law. We may be captives, but, and oh !
let the blessed truth be remembered and clasped to our hearts
we are NOT CAST OFF. Our chastisement is not the sign of
divine wrath alone, but of that DEEP LOVE which punisheth to
save, to amend, to bring back to the blessed paths which we
have deserted, NOT to annihilate, as in the case of so many other
nations. Our very existence through so many centuries of dark
ness would alone prove this, even had we not the whole word of
God to assert that so it would be. Every prophet abounds in
the divine entreaty, so fraught with forbearing love, " O Israel,
return unto the Lord thy God ; why hast thou fallen by thine
iniquity ?" And shall we, as women, reject these gracious prof
fers ? Oh, let us indeed ever come unto the Lord our God,
and make manifest to the Gentiles, to ourselves, how deeply,
how earnestly we feel, that alike our protection, innocence,
honor, purity, elevation, all that can make life dear and holy,
all that is provided to lighten our temporal toil, with eternal
hope to strengthen our weakness, to guide our daily path, and
bless our daily work, is of the Lord, not man. That every pure
throb of love, every sweet tie of life, every aspiring prayer and
grateful thanksgiving, comes from and is hallowed by Him, who,
in His deep love, entered into the heart and home of woman,

202

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

and so fenced them round witb just and beautiful laws, that It
was impossible to perform a single duty, social or domestic,
parental, filial, conjugal, or fraternal, without being holy unto the
Lord ! Can we think on this important and most blessed truth
without lifting up our yearning hearts in the fervent prayer for
that guidance, that blessing, which will enable us to remember
our solemn responsibility, our heavenly heritao-e ; and, in the
midst of captivity, and its varied ordeals of adversity, stagnation,
and prosperity, that we may still join heart to heart and hand
to hand in the persevering effort to make manifest to our God,
that we would indeed be once more His own, and to the
nations, that, cast off for a " little moment" as we are, WE ABB
STILL, and SHALL EVER BE, the OIIOSEN PEOPLE of the LORD ?

THIRD PERIOD.

CHAPTER I.

MIRIAM.

HAVING now considered the law of God under all its various
bearings relative to woman, it only remains to prove, from the
female characters of Scripture, in what manner that law was
obeyed ; and whether it be possible to discover any trace of
statutes, which, in direct contradistinction to the changeless law
of the Eternal, tend to degrade, instead of to elevate, the female
character ; or whether we cannot bring forward some sufficiently
convincing arguments in favor of our deeply studied theory,
that the law of the Eternal is explained, by its practical illustra
tion, through the whole history of the Bible.

To the oralist, or non-oralist, this consideration ought to be
of equal weight. Keeping aloof entirely from the discussion
which has of late too painfully agitated the whole Jewish
nation, we would yet present to both parties the simple fact,
that the supposed degradation of the women of Israel can have
no existence whatever in the Oral Law, or we must find some
trace of this abasement in this and the succeeding periods of our
history. If both were given at the same time, the women of
Israel whom we are about to bring forward, must have lived
under the jurisdiction of both ; and as their lives, feelings, and
actions, are all in exact accordance with the spirit and the form
of the written law, it is clearly evident, that the modern
accusation against us can have no foundation whatever in the
Oral Law, or we must have discovered it in the female
characters of Scripture. Nor will the groundless assertion of
our individual inferiority and social abasement find confirmation
in the writings of our ancient fathers, whose beautiful parables
and tales all tend to illustrate alike the spirit of our law, and

204 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the axiom of our wise man, "Who can find a virtuous woman,
for her price is far above rubies ?"

_ We will proceed, then, without further introduction, to out
history, convinced that were the word of the Eternal mora
deeply studied, the love and peace it breathes must infuse
themselves unconsciously in every human heart, and strife and
discord melt away before the inspired transcript of the love and
mercy of our God.

The character of Miriam is one of the most perfect delinea
tions of woman in her mixed nature of good and evil which the
Bible gives. Her first introduction we have already noticed _ a
young girl, watching, at the command of her mother, the fate
of the ark which held her baby brother, and boldly addressing
the princess of Egypt in the child's behalf.

Her next mention is her sharing the holy trium j h of that
brother, and responding, with apparently her whole heart, tc
the song of praise bursting forth from the assembled Israelites
on the shores of the Red Sea. " Arid Miriam the prophetess,
the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the
women went out after her, with timbrels, and with dances.
And Miriam answered them, Sing, sing ye to the Lord, for he
hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he
thrown into the sea."

The Hebrew word, lTO?jift, here used, and translated prophet
ess, means also, a poetess, and the wife of a prophet, and is
applied sometimes to a singer of hymns. In this latter mean
ing, and perhaps, also, as a poetess, it must be applied to
Miriam, as she was neither the wife of a prophet, nor, as in the
case of Deborah, and afterwards Huldah, endowed by the
Eternal with the power of prophecy itself. She appears to
have been one of those gifted beings, from whom the words of
sacred song flow spontaneously. The miracles performed in
their very sight were sufficient to excite enthusiasm in a
woman's heart, and awaken the burst of thanksgiving ; and
Miriam might have fancied herself at that moment as zealous
and earnest in the cause of God as she appeared to be. But
for true piety, something more is wanted than the mere
enthusiasm of the moment, or the high-sounding religion of
flowing verse. By Miriam not being permitted to enter the
promised land, it is evident that she " had not followed tli«

PERIOD III. MIRIAM. 105

Lord fully," but had probably joined in the rebellions and
murmurings which characterized almost the whole body of the
Israelites during their wanderings in the wilderness. The very
next mention of her after her song of praise, is her presumptu
ous attack upon Moses, and daring insult to the power of the
Lord, contained in the twelfth chapter of Numbers. Some
cbronologists believe this incident occurred only one year after
the passage of the lied Sea, a period not sufficiently long fur
circumstances to have changed the character of Miriam so com
pletely, had not jealousy and presumption been secretly inmates
of her heart before ; unknown, perhaps, even to herself, for how
few of us know our " secret sins," until they are roused into
action by some unlooked-for temptation in an unguarded
moment, and we are startled at ourselves.

The feelings of Miriam, recorded in this chapter, are &•
perfectly accordant with woman's nature, that surely no
woman of Israel will turn from it, believing the length of time
which has elapsed removes all the warning which it should
inculcate. One of the most prominent of female failings is
secret jealousy, quite distinct, however, from the fearful passion
so called. We allude simply to that species of secret and unc<>n-
fessed jealousy, which is the real origin of detraction, so often,
unhappily, practised by woman upon woman. We are not now
writing of any class, or creed, or people in particular, but of
women in general. There never yet was gossip, without some
species of detraction spoken or implied ; and never yet has
detraction been probed candidly and fairly (disregarding the
pain of so doing) to its root, without being traced to either
jealousy or envy of some quality, or possession, of the more
favored being so unkindly judged.

Women, and single women more especially, are more liable
to petty failings than men, simply because they have less to
engross their minds, and less of consequence to employ their
bands. Unless taught from earliest years to find and take
pleasure in resources within, they must look without, and busy
themselves with the characters, and conduct, and concerns of
their neighbors. Now acknowledged merit to such characters
gives very little food for cosy chat ; it wants esprit, and so they
are never content, till something doubtful or suspicious is
discovered, or supposed to be, and then the lovers of gossip
may be found in full conclave, marvelling, and wondering, and

206 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

turning, and twisting, and blaming, and pitying, till the very
object of such animadversion might find it difficult to trace of
whom they speak, and know infinitely less of her own concerns,
intentions, and feelings, than her reporters.

As Miriam acted, so would most women, unenlightened by
that pure spirit of religious love, which alone can conquer the
natural inclination towards detraction, and subdue secret jealousy,
by making us aware of its existence. " And Miriam and Aaron
spake against Moses, because of the Ethiopian woman whom he
had married." The very thing to arouse jealousy and disturb
ance in an unenlightened woman's mind.

Miriam had never been thrown in contact with her sister-in-
law till within the last few months : Moses having sent his wife
for safety, with his two sons, to her father Jethro, during the
troubles in Egypt and their subsequent redemption. From the
silence with regard to Zipporah, we are led to infer that she was
a woman of meek and retiring habits, but of course, as the wife
of their great leader Moses, held in higher repute by the people
than his sister. And this, trifling as it seems, is now, as it
always has been, a trial to some of our sex. Few single women
there are who can look upon the elevation of a brother's wife
without some secret feelings of pain, which will be subdued and
changed into warmest affection, or gain ascendenc}* and violence,
finding vent in petty malice or half-concealed detraction, accord
ing as religion, and candor, and self-knowledge are, or are not,
predominant in the sister's character. Perhaps it is hard, in
some cases, to see one younger and fairer, and only known but
a few years or months, as the case may be, usurp entire posses
sion of a beloved brother's heart ; wherein we, who have been
his hand-in-hand companions from earliest infancy, must now be
conient with but a very secondary place ; but such is one of the
many trials peculiarly woman's, — permitted, that from her very
loneliness below, she may look above for that fulness of love and
tenderness for which she yearns. And thrice happy is that
woman who, conscious of this, can yet be content with, and
value as before, the love her brother has still to spare for her ;
who will so subdue natural feeling as to find in very truth a
friend and sister in a brother's wife, and subjects of deepest inter
est in her children.

Miriam, as we may infer from her punishment, was not one
of these. That an Ethiopian should be raised above herself, whc

PERIOD III. MIRIAM. 207

was a daughter of Israel, was, to one of her evidently proud
spirit, unendurable. Unable, however, to discover aught in
Zipporah herself for a publicly-avowed scorn, she sought to lessen
the holiness and greatness of her brother, by daring to declare
that the Lord had spoken through her and Aaron also. That
this jealousy arose because of the " Ethiopian woman whom he
had married," Holy Writ itself informs us ; and from Miriam's
name being mentioned before that of Aaron, and yet more, from
the wrath of the Lord being manifested towards her alone, it is
evident that hers was the greater sin. Her individual assump
tion ot prophetic power, she knew, would avail her nothing , but,
uniting Aaron in the declaration, she sought to make it appear
that God had breathed His spirit into every member of Amram's
family. She had too much policy to endeavor to deprive Moses
of all his granted and allowed privileges. Her only wish was,
to decrease the value and spirituality of those privileges to him
individually, and elevate herself and Aaron on his descent ;
emboldened so to do by the excessive meekness and forbearance
of Moses, which she knew would shield her from all human
reproof. She might, perhaps, have so dwelt upon her own
imaginary importance, as really to believe what she asserted,
and so feel more and more galled at the little account in which she
was held.

It is quite possible for woman so to feel and so to act, and foi
all to proceed from the petty feelings of jealousy and malice,
first excited by the higher grade and more considered position
of a brother's wife. " Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by
Moses ? hath he not spoken also by us ?" were the words they
said ; brief, and perchance of little weight considered by them
selves, but in a people ever ready to revolt and murmur, more
than likely to kindle sedition and disturbance. " And the Lord
heard it, and the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto
Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the taber
nacle of the congregation : and they three came out, and the
Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the dooi
of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam ; and they both
came forth."

Where now could have been the presumptuous self-import
ance of Miriam, called thus by Him at whose word might be
annihilation ? With what fearful terror must she have heard
Jiat summons, and listened to the reproving words of the Eter-

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

nal ? — exalting Moses above even Ills inspired prophets ; for to
them He declared He would make Himself known in a vision,
and speak unto them in a dream, " but my servant Moses is not
so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak
mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches ;
and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold : wherefore then
were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses ? And the
anger of the Lord was kindled against them ; and He departed.
And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle ; and, behold,
Miriam was leprous, as snow : and Aaron looked upon Miriam,
and, behold, she was leprous."

It is from this awful chastisement, inflicted by the Lord Him
self, that we must judge of the heinousness of her sin ; that
presumption and arrogancy are no small crimes in His sight,
and that God Himself was insulted in the insult offered to "His
chosen servant. " My servant Moses," He ever designates him ;
implying the severest reproof in those simple words. Even were
they endowed with prophetic power, He tells them they would
be less than Moses ; for to Moses alone would He deign to speak
mouth to mouth. Had Miriam's sin been but the impulse of
the moment, the reproof would have been sufficient, as we see
in other cases in Scripture ; but, effectually to root out the sin
ful presumption which probably had lain dormant for months,
the Eternal, in His perfect justice, inflicted such chastisement as
would cause her to be shunned and loathed by the very people
whom she had sought to impress with her individual importance.
Human reproof, indeed, she had not ; for Moses, " meek above
all the men which were on the face of the earth," had not even
answered the detracting words, conscious that his power was not
his own, and that He who gave it, would, if needed, appear in
his defence. Had Miriam's heart been perfect towards God,
neither her sin nor her punishment would have taken place. Pride
and presumption cannot exist with true piety ; and we are there
fore justified in supposing, that the awful infliction was not only
a chastisement for present sin, but to awaken her to all the
neglectfulness and presumption dividing her from the Lord in
years long past. She was now not only to feel His stupendous
power, but the true forgiving meekness and piety of the brother
she had scorned and spoken against, only " because of his Ethio
pian wife."

Stunned and appalled with the suddenness of the infliction.

PERIOD III. MIRIAM. 209

Vid dumb perhaps from awakening shame, Miriam herself stood
silent before Moses : and Aaron therefore appealed for her.

" Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us,
wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned
Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consum
ed as in the moment of his birth." And Moses, without pause,
without one word of reproof, or just indignation at being thus
appealed to by the very persons who had sought to injure him,
lifted up his voice in earnest prayer unto the Lord, saying,
" Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee." And God heard the
prayer, and in His infinite goodness so answered it, as to temper
justice with mercy, promising to withdraw His hand after seven
days, during which time, in obedience to the already instituted
Jaws for lepers, she was to be shut out from the camp. " And
the people journeyed not till she was healed."

As there is no further mention of Miriam, except her death,
in Numbers xx., we may infer that her chastisement had its effect,
?UK! that her haughty and seditious spirit was sufficiently subdued.
We learn, from her brief history, much to guide us as women in
general, and much to support our position as women of Israel.
In the former, we see in what light presumption is regarded by
the Lord — that would we retain His favor, we must be content
with our own position, and in no way interfere, or seek to depre
ciate those whom, even in our own families, it may have pleased
Him to set above us ; that even from so small a beginning as
jealousy of a brother's wife, simply because she was the daughter
of a s Granger, sin gained such powerful ascendency, as to demand
the most awful punishment for its subjection. We learn, that
ac?ording to the nature of our transgression, so will be its chas
tisement. Miriam sought to raise herself not only above her
brothel's wife, but to an equality with that brother himself; and,
by the mfliction of a loathsome disease, she sank at once below
the lowest of her people. No one dared approach her ; she was
cut off even from employment, from every former object of inter
est, banished from the camp ; and she would have thus remained
till her death, had not Moses interfered to beseech and obtain
forgiveness.

The direct interposition of the Lord in punishing sin, and
rewarding virtue, is no longer visible ; but few who study His
word, their own hearts, and the face of the world, both past and
present, will not acknowledge that He is still the sara^, retri-

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

buting and rewarding as when His ways were made manifest til
all. By the example of Scripture characters, He reveals to us
now that which is still acceptable or unacceptable to Him. Pre
sumption, jealousy, the scorn of individual blessings, in the
coveting others, may no longer be punished by leprosy, but " the
Lord's arm is not shortened," and He may afflict us in a variety
of ways, and through the very feelings which we so sinfully
encourage. Let us beware, then, of detraction, of jealousy, of
presumption ; for our Father in Heaven abhors these things.
Let us look only for the blessings granted us individually, in our
inward and outward lot, and comparing them with the sorrow
ing and afflicted, bless God for what He has given us ; not insult
Him, by looking with an eye of envy only on those to whom His
wisdom has given more. There is not a thought, not a feeling,
unknown to Him ; and oh ! let us so guard our hearts, that we
may be aware of the first whispering of sin, and banish it, even
if it be in seeming but a thought.

As women of Israel, the history of Miriam is fraught with
particular interest, from its so undeniably proving that woman
must be quite as responsible a being as man before the Lord, or
He certainly would not have deigned to appear Himself as her
judge. Were woman unable of herself to eschew sin, Miriam's
punishment would have been undoubtedly unjust. Nay, were
she not responsible for feelings, as well as acts, God would not
thus have stretched forth His avenging hand. Her feelings had
only been formed into words, not yet into actions ; still the Lord
punished. And would He have done so, did he not wish to
m.ake manifest, in the sight of the whole people, that both sexes
were alike before Him ? Were woman in a degraded position,
Miriam, in the first place, would not have had sufficient power
for her seditious words to be of any consequence ; and, in the
next, it would have been incumbent on man to chastise — there
needed no interference of the Lord. We see, therefore, the very
sin fulness of Jewish women, as recorded in the Bible, is u.nde-
niable evidence of their equality, alike in their power to subdin
sin, and in its responsibility before God.

That the Eternal graciously pardoned at the word of Moses, is
no proof that Miriam needed the supplication of man to bring her
cause before the Lord, but simply that forgiveness and interces
sion from the injured for the injurer, are peculiarly acceptable to
Him, and will ever bring reply. Miriam had equal power to

PERIOD III. TABERNACLE WORKERS. 211

pray and be heard, as Rebekah, Hannah, and other female cha
racters of Scripture ; but her punishment was no doubt to ba
increased by the painful feelings which, if she were not _ quite
hardened, must have been excited by the appeal of Moses in her
favor, and in receiving the remission of her sentence through
Him. It at once proclaimed his power with the Lord, which she
had sought to depreciate, and his still continued affection for
herself. That the whole camp of Israel should halt in its march
seven days for her alone, — that she should suffer less than were she
shut out from her fellows in the act of travelling, argues pretty
strongly, that her being a woman in no degree lessened her impor
tance, or rendered the men of Israel less careful for her comfort
They could not have done more, had the chastised been Aaron
in her stead.

CHAPTER II.

FEMALE WORKERS OF THE TABERNACL E.

CALEB'S DAUGHTER.

IN a history of the women of Israel, we must not forget those
who are mentioned as aiding the holy work of the tabernacle.
Proclamation was made throughout the camp, that every man
and woman who had a willing heart should bring an offering
unto the Lord, either of gold, silver, or brass, blue, purple, and
scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair, and oil, and spices, and
sweet incense, and onyx stones, and stones of all kinds ; and
that every one who was wise-hearted among them should come
and make all that the Lord had commanded, which Moses pro
ceeds to enumerate (see Exod. xxxv. and xxxvi.). The congre
gation then departed to their several tents, but speedily came
every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his
spirit made willing. "And they came, both men and WOMEN,
as many who were willing-hearted, and brought bracelets, and
earrings, and rings, and tablets of gold," &c. "And all the women
who were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought

112 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

that which, they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of
scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred
them up in wisdom, spun goats' hair. The children of Israel
brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman,
whose heart made them willing." In such quantities were these
free offerings, that another proclamation was soon made ; for
" they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more
than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord com
manded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they
caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let
neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of
the sanctuary. And the people were restrained from bringing."

We have quoted all these verses, at the risk of being thought
tedious, on account of the very important truths they contain.
In the first place, we see that, notwithstanding the innumerable
rebellions, seditions, and murmurings of the Israelites, there was
still a vast multitude, whose hearts so stirred them up for the
service of the Lord, as to bring more valuable offerings than
could be used. In the text, by the constant allusion to the
willing hearted, and to those whose spirits made them willing,
we read, that only those gifts were acceptable which were offered
from the heart. No mere formal profession could here avail.
The spirit within was to be the prompter, not the outward
appearance. In the third, the frequent mention of the wise-
hearted, or those whose hearts stirred them up in wisdom, we
learn, from the context, specified more especially those whom
God Himself had gifted for the work ; and that all those arts of
engraving, of embroidery, of weaving, of cunning work, of spin
ning, nay, every kind of male and female work, came originally
as much from His inspiration, as every other higher branch
usually denominated " natural gifts," " talents," or " genius."
Spinning, weaving, engraving, and embroidery, are now so com
mon, that we have quite forgotten from whose inspiration they
originally came ; and were we told that these very resources of
the mind and fingers should be amongst the innumerable daily
blessings for which we should thank God, we might be accused of
enthusiasm and religious romance ; yet who can read this chap
ter of Exodus, without feeling the truth of our position, and
bidding the heart glow with thanksgiving for the innocent and
happy resources of daily life ?

In the fourth place, by both proclamations being addressed tc

PERIOD III. - TABERNACLE WORKERS. 213

as well as man, we have another unanswerable proof of

their equality, not only in the power and freedom to bring offer
ings, but in their being equally gifted by the Eternal for the
work. We peruse with admiration the self-devotion of the
women of Carthage, when bringing together all their gold and
silver ornaments to form arms for the defence of their city, even
cutting off their hair to make strings for bows and other wea
pons ;" and our admiration is just : but how much more strongly
should it be excited towards the women of Israel of old, who,
from pure love of God, and zeal in His holy service, brought all
their ornaments, bracelets, earrings, tablets, lings, jewels of gold
and silver, every article of value which they could collect, and
set themselves, heart and hand, to spin, weave, embroider, and
use all their talents in His service by whom they had been
bestowed. The women of Carthage were roused by a sense of
rapidly approaching danger, by the excitement of war, by that
pure love of home and land which God has implanted in every
breast. The women of Israel were under no excitement ; nay,
they were wandering in a wilderness fraught with much to
exhaust and weary mere human nature, however the immortal
spirit might be sustained by the presence and revelation of the
Lord. Their goal was in perspective. The voice of murmuring,
of disbelief, was constantly sounding around them. " Wherefore
is it, that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and
our children ?" were words, not once nor twice, but countless
times repeated, with every new trial of their faith. And what
is so infectious in a " mixed multitude" as unbelief — ay, even in
the very face of miracles performed in their behalf? Yet, at the
first call, thsre were still very many wise and willing-hearted to
come fo. ward. The women of Carthage were actuated by the
mere feelings of humanity, by palpable danger, by the clearly
traced issue of their efforts. The women of Israel worked
through FAITH. Hoping for no earthly reward, seeking no
worldly glory, sacrificing ornaments most prized (for dress, a&
we shall presently see, was considered rather too much than too
little by our ancestors), knowing that once given they could not
be recalled, keeping neither time nor talent back, but using both
perseveringly and indiscriminately, and all simply and solely out
of pure love to God.

There is s jmething both beautiful and consoling in this por
tion of our history. It informs us, that in the very midst of

214

THE WOMEN OF ISKAEL.

constant rebellions and constant fallings away, there were, and
will always be found, many to love and serve their God. 'ilia*
He will never leave Himself without witnesses upon earth ; and
that, therefore, however we may mourn the lack of energy and
spirituality in Israel — however we may grieve and deplore the
cases of infidelity or indifference, or even direct departures from
His most Holy Law — still God is with us to retain many an
unsuspected one in fidelity and zeal. Despondency, even in His
cause, is more than wrong ; it is sinful, for it doubts Him who
is so strong to save ; whose word is passed, that " Israel shall
never cease to be a nation before Him ;" and who, even fron.
the deepest darkness, can and will bring forth light. It causes
feelings towards our fellows, both of injustice and pain ; and in
ourselves deadens every effort after holiness and righteousness,
by the supposition, that the struggles of one individual must be
all in vain. Despondency treads so closely upon indifference,
that every effort should be put in force to prevent its ascendency.
We cannot have faith either in God or man if we despond, and
thus we are gradually led into sin, alike against our Father in
Heaven, our brother man, and ourselves.

To us as women, the particular mention of our female ances
tors, as bringing offerings and working for the tabernacle, is
inexpressibly consoling. It assures us that, lowly as we are,
retired as is our natural sphere, incapable as is our weaker
frame for the exertions of man in the Lord's service, still
we are acceptable — still He will graciously look down on our
"willing hearts," and the humble work of our hand, and bless
them with such love, as will give us peace even upon earth. It
tells us, that from Him comes every employment and resource,
alike of mind and hand ; and that, in consequence, all should
be used to His glory ; not, indeed, for the service of the taber
nacle, for we are not now so called upon to work, but in the
happiness which His gifts should bestow upon ourselves and
our fellow-creatures. Had we but these two chapters in our
Holy Law, we should have sufficient to confirm our spiritual
privileges ; — that our Father asks but a willing spirit, a heart
that is stirred within us to do His service, whatever it may be;
to resign whatever He may call ; but it MUST BE a willing
heart : mere lip-service is mockery and sin. Let it not be said
that the Jewish religion is a religion of mere form, incumbent
only on the males, and therefore debarring woman from al)

PKR1OD III. CALEB S DAUGHTER. 219

religious exercises, all access to God. Bid those who throtf
Buch foul wrong on Israel, come hither to the pure unadulterated
fount of the Living God, and then say, if the religion of the
Na/arene were the first, and only one, to teach woman her
holy privileges, and to preach that pure spiritual piety of the
heart, that simple working through faith, which is ^ revealed so
olessedly in our Law, and confirmed by every inspired prophet
of the Lord. And that religion of the heart is ours still. We
need no other to replace it.

The age of chivalry is genera/ly supposed to be a powerful
proof of the respect and consideration with which women were
regarded amongst the Gentile nations during the middle ages.
Their position was marked ; their love, their hand, the greatest
reward, the most powerful incentive for the young warriors to
distinguish themselves. Marvellous deeds were done, and dan
gers dared, all for the smiles of woman ; nay, evil passions
were often subdued: generosity, magnanimity, kindness, and
many other virtues, were called into play by woman's influence,
without which those ages would have been dark indeed. Her
individual position might have been too elevated ; but still, that
elevation was far more often used for good than evil. Chivalry
did bring forth good with regard to woman's influence on man,
and no one assuredly will deny, but that to have been held up
as the rewarder of valor, the incentive of virtue, must have
made her a subject of consideration, respect, and love, very
different to slavery and degradation.

Now, the very first instance of chivalry which history records, is
found in the Bible, and in the history of that very people to whose
women similar privileges are denied. "And Caleb said, he
that smiteth Kirjath-sepher [also called Debir], and taketh it,
to him will T give Achsah my daughter to wife. And Othniel,
the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it : and he
gave him Achsah his daughter to wife. And it came to pass,
as she Ccime unto him, she moved him to ask of her father a
field ; and she lighted off her ass ; and Caleb said unto her,
What wouldst thou ? and she said unto him, Give me a bless
ing ; for thou hast given me a south land ; give me also springs
of water. And Caleb gave her also the upper springs and the
nether springs." W"e find all these verses, first in Joshua xv,
16-19, and repeated without any variation in Judges i. 12-15

216 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Caleb was a prince of the tribe of Judah (Numb. xiii. 6j, so
high in favor with the Lord, as to be joined with Joshua in
being permitted to enter the promised land, and designated by
the Eternal as " My servant Caleb, who hath followed me
fully."

Caleb seems to have been, like Joshua, a prince and warrior
of high repute, dauntless, and faithful before God and before
ir.an. His daughter (though not an only child, for we read in
1 Chron. iv. 15, that he had also three sons) shared the con
sideration proffered to her father. Caleb must have seen the
high respect and admiration in which she was held, or he
never would have dreamed of offering her as the reward of
valor. That which is of no value, lightly won, and lightly
held, and, when obtained, to sink merely into a household
slave, was not at all likely to excite young men to the arduous
task of smiting and taking a fortified city, defended as it was
by the sons of Anak, whose immense stature and extraordinary
prowess had formerly caused them to be considered as " giants,"
in whose sight the children of Israel were but as "grass
hoppers." Nor can we regard this as merely a solitary instance :
it is a proof of the general condition of Hebrew women at that
period ; and also that Othniel was not Achsah's only admirer.

" He that smiteth and taketh it, to him will I give Achsah
my daughter to wife," is a general appeal, supposing her hand
to be a sufficient incentive to all the young men of the tribe ;
and that His Law, regarding the inheritance of daughters,
should not be transgressed, the Eternal blessed the valiant
efforts of Othniel, Caleb's own nephew, with success ; and the
coveted maiden became his wife.

That it was solely Achsah herself who was sought and won,
with no idea of her wealth, is clearly proved by the simple
words " she moved him [her husband] to ask of her father, a
field or piece of land ;" the wish for possession came from her,
not from Othniel, who was in all probability fully satisfied with
the recompense he had gained ; and when Caleb had granted
this request, as we know by the words in which she afterwards
addresses him, she approached him herself, and lighting off hei
ass, a token of the respect natural to Israel, Caleb asked her,
u What wilt thou ?" and she answered him, " Give me a bless
ing :" meaning, possibly, a further token of his love for her -

PERIOD in. — CALEB'S DAUGHTER. 217

" for thou hast given me a south land [alluding to that already
given at Othniel's request], give me also springs of water : and
Caleb gave her the upper and the nether springs."

Without springs, land, in so hot a country as Judea, was of
little value ; and therefore is it that Aehsah craves this boon in
addition to that already granted. The affectionate confidence
subsisting between the father and daughter is beautifully illus
trated in this simple little incident. Though Aehsah held her
father in such respect as not to prefer her request while sitting
on her ass before him, yet she feared not to make her wishes
known, fully conscious that, were they in his power, he would
grant them unhesitatingly ; and his instant reply proves how
much reason she had for her confidence.

We learn too from this, that woman must undoubtedly have
had the power of possessing landed property in her own right,
and in a degree exclusive of her husband ;* else Caleb would
have made over the portion intended for her to Othniel on his
marriage, instead of waiting for Aehsah to ask, and granting it
to her alone.

The beautiful law of our God was then in full force among
every rank and condition of man ; and surely we can find no
trace in the history of Aehsah to confirm the false position of
our being degraded. Does it not rather elevate us to a perfect
equality with our brother man, and prove undeniably that the
Israelites were the very first nation in the world to hold forth
the love and hand of woman as the pure and holy incentive to
deeds of manline a and valor ?

* And exclusive also of her brothers ; for if landed inheritance were
to be man's only, she could have had no claim to any portion. The abore
was written originally, under the impression that Aehsah was Caleb's
only child : a further study of the genealogies in Chronicles proves that
ahe was »ot.

218 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

CHAPTER III.

DEBORAH.

TPIE promised land was gained, deeds of extraoi dinary valor
and military skill and prowess marked its conquest and subdi
vision ; but God's express command was disobeyed ; and, in
consequence, the tribes, even after they had settled in their
respective territories, were continually " doing evil in the sight
of the Lord," and at war, as a chastisement, with their idola
trous neighbors. God had ordained the extermination of the
former inhabitants of Palestine, because of their fearful state of
idolatry, and various abominations. He had deferred bringing
in the seed of Abraham to their appointed land, because " the
iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full." He might in His
wisdom have exterminated them by fire, water, or disease ; but
lie appointed the swords of the Israelites as the instruments of
His wrath, simply to try their faith and obedience, and bid
them earn the rest, peace, spiritual and temporal glory, which
he had held forth as the recompense of perfect obedience.

This fact is very frequently disregarded in a mere superficial
reading of the history of Canaan. There are those even to
doubt and cavil at the ways of their God, because He com
manded His people to obtain possession of the promised land
at the edge of the sword ; forgetting that so doing was at once
a punishment for those who had insulted Him by their awful
iniquities (having full power to subdue sin, and keep in the
straight path, as did the inhabitants of Mesopotamia even with
out direct revel ation), and also to try the obedience of His
people. Disease, fire, or flood, would have accomplished the
first of these designs equally with the plan adopted ; but not
the second. Yet the former would at once have been recognised
as the hand of God ; no one questioning the agency of either the
deluge, the destruction of Sodom, or the earthquake and the
plague, punishing the rebellion of Korah. Why then should
not the sword of slaughter be traced to the same Divine ordina
tion, whence alone in fact it proceede 1 ?

PERIOD in. — DEBORA'H. 219

The Israelites, however, failed in their commanded obedience.
Instead of exterminating, they entered into friendly leagues with
the enemies and insulters of their God ; and the Eternal, in His
just anger, permitted them, in consequence, to remain as
•' thorns,°and pricks in their sides, and their false gods as a snare
unto them." And so it was: "They took their daughters to
oe their wives, and gave their daughters to their sons, and
served their gods ; and the children cf Israel did evil in the
sight of God, and forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim
and the groves." And this fearful state of things occurred
repeatedly ; rousing the anger of the Lord each time to sell
them into the hands of their enemies, and yet whenever they
cried unto Him in returning faith and repentance, His infinite
mercy raised up deliverers in whom He put His spirit, and
saved them.

Othniel, the nephew and son-in-law of Caleb, Ehud, and
Shamgar, had each in his turn been thus selected by the Lord ;
and during their respective sways Israel was at rest and obedi
ent. But between each, they had relapsed into idolatry and
rebellion ; and after the deaths of Ehud and Shamgar, who
appear contemporaries, falling anew into evil, the Eternal sold
them into the hands of Jabin, king of Hazor, who mightily
oppressed them twenty years, and caused them again to cry unto
the Lord.

But even in these periods of anarchy and rebellion, all were
not idolatrous. There must still have been many " seven
thousands who had not bowed the knee to Baal," else would
not the Lord have thus repeatedly compassionated and relieved
them. Amongst these faithful few, the law was of courso
followed, and the people judged according to the statutes given
through Moses. Had there been the very least foundation for
the supposition of the degrading and heathenizing the Hebrew
female, we should not find the offices of prophet, judge, military
instructor, poet, and sacred singer, all combined and all perfected
in the person of a woman ; a fact clearly and almost startlingly
illustrative of what must have been their high and intellectual
ti aining, as well as natural aptitude for guiding and enforcing
the statutes of their God, to which at that time woman could
attain.

" And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she
judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palra
10

220 TH'E WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel, in Mount
Ephraim : and the children of Israel came unto her for judg
ment." This simple description evinces that the greatness of
Deborah consisted not at all in outward state, in semblance of high
rank, or in any particular respect or homage outwardly paid
her; but simply in her vast superiority of mental and spiritual
acquirements which were acknowledged by her countrymen,
and consequently revered. The office of judge in Israel was not-,
hereditary. It only devolved on those gifted to perform it i
and, by the example before us, might be held by either sex: !
rather an unsatisfactory proof of the degradation of Jewish i
women. We are expressly told that Deborah was a prophetess, /
and " the wife of Lapidoth." Now, by the arrangement of this
sentence, confirmed by the context, it is very evident that

'Deborah was a prophetess in her own person, wholly and
entirely distinct from her husband, who was a mere cypher in /
public concerns. The Eternal had inspired her, a WOMAN andk7
a WIFE in Israel, with His spirit expressly to do His will, and
make manifest to her countrymen how little is He the respecter
of persons ; judging only by hearts perfect in His service, and
spirits willing for the work : heeding neither the weakness nor
apparent inability of one sex, compared with the greater natural
powers of the other.

Yet so naturally are her public position and personal gifts
described, that we cannot possibly believe her elevation to be

-an extraordinary occurrence, or that her position as a wife for
bade her rising above mere conjugal and household duties.
We never hear of a slave, or leper, or heathen, being intrusteu
with the prophetic spirit of the Eternal, simply because the
social condition of such persons would and must prevent their
obtaining either the respect, obedience, or even attention of the
people. For the same reason, had woman really been on a
par with these, as she is by some declared to be, she would
never have been intrusted with gifts spiritual and mental,
which Deborah so richly possessed. She never could have been
a prophetess, for her words would only have been regarded as
idle raving. She could never have been a judge, from the want
of opportunities to train and perfect her intellect, and to obtain
the necessary experience. Now it is clear that instead of this,

,her natural position must have been so high, that there needed
not even adventitious state and splendor to make it acknow

PERIOD III. DEBORAH. 221

ledged ; and her intellect and judgment so cultivated, as not
only to bring the people flocking to her for judgment, but to
occasion Barak's refusal to set out on a warlike expedition
unless she accompanied them.

We find the first recorded instance of her using her pro
phetic power in Judges iv. 6 : " And she sent and called Barak
the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh Naphtali, and said unto
him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, Go
and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thou
sand men of the children of Naphtali and the children of
Zebulun ? And I will draw unto thee Sisera, the captain of
Jabin's army, and his chariots and his multitudes ; and I will
deliver him into thine hand. And Barak said unto her, If
thou wilt no with me, then I will go : but if thou wilt not go
with me, then will I not go. And she said, I will surely go
with thee : notwithstanding the journey shall not be for thine
honor ; for the Lord will sell Sisera into the hand of a ,
woman."

We should be at a loss to understand the feeling in Barak,
which impelled his reply, might we not infer it from Deborah's
rejoinder. It would appear that, like many of his countrymen,
while he obeyed, he was still wanting in the perfect faith which
would have given him a glorious triumph in his own person.
The presence of Deborah could in no way give him greater
increase of safety and glory, than had he gone without her.
She was but the instrument of the Lord, making His will
known to her fellows. The words were not hers, but God's ;
and Barak should have acted on them without either reserva
tion or doubt. Instead of which we find him making a condi
tion to his obedience ; and refusing to obey, if that condition
were not compM with. What could the presence of a woman
avail him ? Her being a prophetess gave him no more assur
ance of conquest than the word of the Lord had already done ;
and because he trusted more in the woman than in her God, the
journey would not be to his honor ; a woman's hand should
accomplish that complete downfall of Sisera, which would other
wise have accrued to his individual glory. It is evident that
this is the real rendering of this rather obscure sentence, else
we should not have it so expressly stated that the "journey
would not be for his honor."

Deborah however arose, and went with Barak, first to collect

222

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the necessary troops from Zebulun and Naphtali, and then to
Mount Tabor, where Sisera and his immense armament of nin«
hundred chariots of iron, besides infantry, marched to meet
them. Still we find Barak but secondary,' doing nothing with
out the word of the Lord through Deborah. And Deborah
said, "Up ! for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered
Sisera into thine hand : is not the Lord gone out before thee ?
So Barak went down from Mount Tabor, and ten thousand
men after them ;" and the Lord gave them such complete
victory, that but Sisera escaped, to receive his death at the hand
of a woman, according to the Eternal's word. Nor was it
a single victory, for " the hand of the children of Israel pros
pered and prevailed against Jabin, king of Canaan."

We next find Deborah exercising that glorious talent of

-^extempore poetry only found amongst the Hebrews; and by
her, a woman and a wife in Israel, possessed to an almost equal
degree with the Psalmist and prophets, who followed at a later
period. Her song is considered one of the most beautiful speci
mens of Hebrew poetry, whether read in the original, or in the
English version. We find her taking no glory whatever to
herself, but calling upon the princes, and governors, and people
of Israel, to join with her in " blessing the Lord for the aveng
ing of Israel." In the fourth and fifth verses, she alludes, by°a
most beautiful figure, to the power of the Eternal. That before
Him " the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, and the
clouds dropped water. And the mountains trembled, even
Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel," thus manifesting that his
power, not man's, had brought- d- livery to Israel. Then in the
sixth and eighth verses she describes the condition of the people
"Wore she arose a mother in Israel ; that they were compelled
to travel in by-paths, because of the high roads all being occu
pied by their foes ; and from the villages all the inhabitants
had ceased, from their being continually exposed undefended
to the enemy. Nor was there a shield or spear seen in the
forty thousand of Israel. The simplicity and lowliness of the
prophetess's natural position, is beautifully illustrated by the
term she applies to herself — neither princess, nor governor, nor
judge, nor prophetess, though both the last offices she fulfilled

~"^~" until that I, Deborah, arose, until I arose a MOTHER in
Israel." She asked no greater honor or privilege for KerseT'
individually, than the being recognised as the mother ot the

PERIOD III. DEBORAH. 223

people whom the Lord alone had endowed her with power to
judge. "My heart is towards the governors of Israel," she
continues, " that offered themselves willingly among the people.
Bless ye the Lord," mearflhg those who, rising from the idolatry
and sloth which had encompassed the people, offered themselves
willingly for the service of the Lord. She bids them speak,— -
nil classes of people, — from those princes who rode on white
asses, and those who sat in judgment, and those who walked
by the way, to even the drawers of water who had before been
harassed by the noise of the archers coming forcibly to disturb
their domestic employments ; and all were to rehearse the
righteous acts of the Lord, for to Him alone they owed their
preservation. "The Lord made ME have dominion over the
mighty," she says, in verse thirteen, thus retaining her own
—-dignity and power in Israel, yet tracing it to the Eternal, not to
herself. The poetry describing the downfall of their foes, call
ing forth the imagery of nature to give it force and life ; the
death of Sisera, and the waiting and watching of his mother at
her lattice — " Why is his chariot so long in coming ? why
tarry the wheels of his chariots ?" and the answer, alike from
her ladies, and her own heart, " Have they not sped ? have
they not divided the prey ; to every man a damsel or two ; to
Sisera a prey of divers colors, a prey of divers colors of needle
work, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil ?" as if to
fail with his mighty armament were impossible ; and thus sung
by the lips of the conquerors, infused with a species of satire, 7
giving indescribable poignancy to the strain; and then the^
glorious conclusion, " So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord :
but let them that love thee be as the sun when he goeth forth
in his might ;" form altogether one of the sublimest strains of
spiritual fervor in the Bible ; and mark forcibly, by her conduct,
both as prophetess and judge, that in Deborah, even as in
Gideon, David, and the prophets of later years, God disdained
not to breathe His spirit, but made a WOMAN His instrument to .
3T judge, to prophesy, to teach, and to redeem.

" And the land' had rest forty years," we are told at the con-

elusion of Deborah's song ; words which, as no other judge is

mentioned, would lead us to infer that Deborah continued

Y u a mother in Israel" all that time, retaining the people in

' fidelity, and consequently in temporal and spiritual peace,

Even if she did not live herself to govern all those years, it is

224 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

evident that her influence and instructions were rememlcred
and acted upon, for it was not till after these forty years that
" Israel again did eyil in the sight ofLthe Lord," and so again
required a redeemer, which was granted in the person of
Gideon.

The silence preserved regarding the subsequent life and
death of Deborah, is a simple confirmation of the meekness and
humility with which we found her judging Israel under her
own palm-tree, before being called to a more stirring scene.
The land was at peace, the power of prophecy and foresight in
military matters was no longer needed, and "Deborah resumed
her personally humble station, evidently without any ambitious
vish, or attempt to elevate her rank or prospects. It was
enough that she was useful to her countrymen ; that she was a
lowly instrument in the Eternal's hand to work them good.
What, now, did she need to satisfy the woman nature, which
/-'she still so evidently retained ? Her judgments, her works, are
covered with the veil of silence, but we learn their effects by
the simple phrase, that " the land had rest forty years" — the
land, the whole land, not merely that which was under her
direct superintendence. Virtue, holiness, and wisdom, though
the gifts of but one lowly individual, are not confined to one
place, when used, as were Deborah's, to the glory of God, and
the good of her people. Silently, and perhaps unperceived,
they spread over space and time ; and oh ! how glorious must
be the destiny of that woman, who, without one moment quit
ting her natural sphere, can yet by precept, example, and labor
produce such blessed effects as to give the land peace, and
bring a whole people unto God !

In a practical view, perhaps, the character of Deborah cannot
now be brought home to the conduct of her descendants, for
woman can no longer occupy a position of such trust and wisdom
in Israel ; but, theoretically, we may take the history of Debo
rah to our hearts, both nationally and individually. With such
~> an example in the Word of our God, it is unanswerably evident
that neither the Written nor the Oral Law could have contained
one syllable to the disparagement of woman.

Men were in no condition to have permitted the influence of
woman, had they not been accustomed, by the constant and
emphatic enjoinments of the law, to look on her with respect,
consideration, and tenderness. Mentally and spiritually, Debcr

PERIOD III.--DEB OR A H. 225

rah was gifted in an extraordinary degree, leading us to infer

that the women of Israel must have had the power to cultivate v

both mind and spirit, and to delight in their resources, for we
have the whole Bible to prove that the Eternal never selected
for the instruments of His will, any but those whose hearts were
inclined towards Him, even before He called them — witness the
history of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, and others. All and
every talent comes from God, but will not work and influence
>y His sole gift alone. They are given to be improved, persever
ed in, perfected, by those to whom they are intrusted, and then
u.sed in the service of their Giver. It is evident, then, that
Deborah had the inclination and the power to cultivate, perfect,
\ and use the gifts of her God ; and this would have been quite
j impossible, had her social condition been such as the enemies of
•'- (scriptural and spiritual Judaism declare. With the history of
Deborah in their hands, the young daughters of Israel need little
other defence or argument, to convince their adversaries that
they require no other creed, nor even a denial of the Oral Law,
to teach them their proper position, alike to themselves and
their fellows, and in their relative duties towards God and man.
Deborah being a wife, confirms this yet more strongly.
There must not only have been perfect freedom opposition, but
)f action ; even more than is found in the history of any modern
nation, for we do not find a single instance of a wife being elect
ed to any public office requiring intellect and spirituality,
secular and religious knowledge, so completely distinct from her
husband. Yet the history of Deborah in no way infers that she
was neglectful of her conjugal and domestic duties. There is an
unpretending simplicity about her very greatness. The very
fact of those she judged coming to her under her own palm-
tree, supposes her quiet and retired mode of living. She never

leaves her home, except at the earnest entreaty of Barak, which

urges her to sacrifice domestic retirement for public good. To
a really great mind, domestic and public duties are so perfectly
compatible, that the first need never be sacrificed for the last
And that Lapidoth in no manner interfered with the public
olEcos of his wife, called as she was to them by God Himself
through His gifts, infers a noble confidence and respectful con
sideration towards her, evidently springing at once from the
national equality and freedom tendered to Jewish women ; and
from a mind great enough to appreciate and value such talents

226 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Ml even in a woman ; a greatness not verv often found in modern
J times.

To follow in the steps of our great ancestress is not possible,
now that the prophetic spirit is removed from Israel, and the few
public offices left us fall naturally to the guardianship of man ;
yet many and many a Jewish woman is intrusted with one or
more talents direct from God ; and if she can stretch forth a
ie ping hand to the less enlightened of her people, let her not
hold back, from the false and unscriptural belief that woman
3annot aid the cause of God, or in any way attain to religious
knowledge. His word is open to her, as to man. In Moses'
command to read and explain the Law to all people, woman was
included by name. And now the whole Bible, Law, Historical
books, Psalms, and Prophets, are open to her daily commune,
and shall it be said that she has neither the right nor the under
standing to make use of such blessed privilege'? Shame, shame
, on those who would thus cramp the power of the Lord, in deny-
| mg to any one of His creatures the power of addressing and
1 1 comprehending Him, through the inexhaustible treasure of His
! gracious word !

- -W^ Every married woman is judge and guardian of her own
(household. She may have to encounter the prejudices of a
husband, not yet thinking with her on all points ; but if she
fbave really a great mind, she will know how to influence, with-
vput in any way interfering. She will know how to serve the Lord
in her household without neglecting her duty and affection
towards her husband ; and by domestic conduct influence
society at large, secretly and unsuspectedly indeed, but moye
powerfully than she herself can in the least degree suppose.

To unmarried women, even as to wives, some talent is intrust
ed, which may be used to the glory of its Giver. Life is not
pent us to be frittered away in an unmeaning little satisfactory
I run of amusements, or often in their mere fruitless search.
There surely is some period in a single woman's existence, when
the hopes, ambition, and even favorite amusements, of girlhood
_ must come to an end. Because unmarried, is woman still to
believe herself a girl, hoping for, and looking for, a change in
her existence, which will in reality never come ? Would ft not
be wiser and better, aye, and incalculably happier, if woman her
self withdrew from the sphere of exciting hopes and pleasures
[_which she had occupied in girlhood ? If she sought persever

rERlOI, I 1 1. —WIFE OF MA NO All. 227

'•no-ly and prayerfully some new objects of interest, affection, and
employment, which she might justly hope would become a stay
and support in rapidly advancing years, and thus entirely pre
vent the ennui, and its attendants, love of gossip, frivolity, and
often sourness and irritability, which are too generally believed
to be the sole characteristics of single (and so of course suppos- -
ed disappointed) women ? Have we not all some precious
talent lent us by our God, and for the use of which He will
demand an account ? Is there not the whole human family
from which to select some few objects of interest, >n whom to /
expend some of our leisure time, and draw our thoughts from'
all-engrossing self? Were there but one object on whom we
have lavished kindness, and taught to look up to God and hea-
,ven. and to walk this earth virtuously and meekly— but one or
two whom, had we the pecuniary means, we have clothed and
fed— a sick or dying bed that we have soothed— a sorrowing
one consoled— an erring one turned from the guilty path— the
repentant, or the weak, strengthened and encouraged— we shall
not have lived in vain ; or, when we come to die, look shuddermgly
back on a useless life and wasted gifts ; on existence lost m the
vain struggle to arrest the flight of time, and still seek hope and
pleasure in thoughts and scenes, whose sweetness has been too
lono- extracted for aught to remain but bitterness and gall.
Deborahs in truth we cannot be ; but each and all have talents
(riven, arid a sphere assigned them, and, like her, all have it in
their power, in the good performed towards man, to use the one,
and consecrate tl.e other to the service of their God.

CHAPTER IV. .
WIFE OF MA N o A 11.

SEVERAL years passed since the death of Deborah. Gideon,
Polo, Jair, Jepthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdan, had successively
iudged Israel, often with interregnums of rebellion, apostasy,

228 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

and anarchy. After the death of the last mentioned judg<\
"the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord,
and lie delivered them into the hands of the' Philistines forty
years." We now come to another incident in the history of the
women of Israel demanding our attention. In the tribe of Dan
was a certain man of the city of Zorah, named Manoah, whoso
wife had no children, always a source of grief in the families of
Israel ; not, as the Christians believe, from the idea of becoming
the mother of the promised Messiah (who is scarcely mentioned
till the time of the prophets, when the awfully threatened chas
tisement of the Eternal needed such condolatory promises), but
because children were always considered proofs of the Lord's
love, a privilege granted from Him as the recompense of firth-
ful service; as we read in the words of David, " Lo, children
are an heritage of the Lord : and the fruit of the womb is His
REWARD," Psalm cxxvii. And, again, "Thy wife shall bo as a
fruitful vine by the sides of thine" house : and thy children like
olive phnts around thy table. Behold, thus shall the man be
blessed that feareth the Lord. Thou shalt see thy children's
children, and peace on Israel," Psalm cxxviii. To go down
childless to the grave, and so prevent the name from being
"built up" in Israel, was deemed a heavy afflictic i, inferring, for
some secret sin or public transgression, the anger of the Lord,

Sacred Writ is silent as to the reason of the Eternal's selec
tion failing on the family of Manoah for a deliverer in part from
the Philistines, but we are justified in inferring from the con
text , that they were one of the few faithful followers of Israel,
by whom the Law was in all points obeyed. Be that however
as it may, this is certain, that it was to the WOMAN, not to the
man, the A*ost High deigned to send Mis angelic messenger,
with not or!y the blessed revelation that He would grant her a
son ; but deigning to instruct her as to the food and drink she
was to refrain from taking herself, and to the devoting her babe
as a Nazarite to the Lord, even from his infancy ; thus making
the direct commands of the Immutable agree in all points with
Hi 3 Law which His wisdom and mercy had already given.

Naturally astonished, for such revelations were not even then
f omnion in Israel, we find " the woman" following the impulse
of her confiding nature, hastening on the install? to her hus
band, and informing him that a man of God had come unto Her,
and his countenance was very terrible (signifying, not nctualh

l> K K I O I> III. W I K K O K M A N O A II . 2'.'9

terrible, but grand ami Imposing), like tho countenance of an
angel of tho Lord ; but " 1 asked him not whence ho wan, r.ei-
ther told he mo bis name." From thin description of Iho
heavenly messenger, it appears that tho woman did QOtOOMldef
linn in reality an angel, supposing him a man of (tod or prophet,
bearing a message from tho Most High, an was usual in Israel,
yet still struck by tho imposing beauty of his countenance, and
['••< -ling it possessed something beyond mortality.

Equally astonished, but believing, Manoah lost no time in idlo
speculation, but betook himself instantly to prayer ; thus con-
firming our idea of his faithfulness and piety, and proving ono
grand and important national truth, that the Israelites needed
no mediator whatever, 1x3 ho man or angel, to bring up their
prayers before (tod, and obtain His gracious reply. Hero was
Manoah, living on his own estates, in bin own tribe, far removed
from tho priests of the- Ixml and tho tabernacle, through tho
first of whom alone it in declared, by our opponents, that tho
prayers of Israel could bo acceptably oflefed up. No priest
near, of whom he could either ,'isk or obtain counsel ; no wiso
man or judge, of whom he might demand advice or explanation.
Yet the law wan then in force all over Israel, and if it had been
illegal and derogatory to the dignity of the Lord to address Him
in prayer from any place, or at any timo, we should have found
Manoah hastening without a moment's delay to the Appointed spot,
and offering sacrifices to obtain tho mediation of tho anointed
priest, knowing that through him only ho could obtain reply.

Instead of which, we; find him, without even pause or hesita
tion, believing tho words of his wife so implicitly, as V) offer up
a prayer of such simple construction that it clearly proves how
little tho Most High regards inero formula in prayer, when
springing, as did Manoah's, from humility and faith. " Then
Manoah entreated tho Lord, arid said, O my Lord, let tho man
of (Jod which thou didst Rend come again to us, and teach us
what wo shall do unto tho child that shall bo born." Here is
no doubt expressed as to tho reality of tho blessing proffered :
"Tho child that shall be born," reveals how fully he believed in
the promiscj ; but, as was natural to humanity, ho entreated a
confirmation of tho instructions vouchsafed, riot knowing how far
the imagination and the fears of his wife might have tinctured
aer relation.

"And God hearkened to the voice of Manoah." Did w«

230 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

need any further incentive to " entreat the Lord" in all thing*
surely we have it here. Manoah had simply spoken the
thoughts of his heart in words, which would be their natural
vehicle of expression. He had prayed through the merits of
neither dead nor living, man nor angel, but in lowly trusting
faith, and God hearkened and answered. Again His messenger
appeared unto the woman as she sat in the field, Manoah not
being with her, and she ran to inform her husband, saying that
the man had again appeared unto her, the same who had come
previously ; and Manoah, no doubt in secret adoring the
Beneficent God who had thus deigned to answer his prayer,
went with his wife, and demanded of the messenger, if he were
indeed the man who had visited them before. And being
answered in the affirmative, he besought a repetition of how to
" order the child ;" and the angel condescended a full reply,
reiterating all his previous instructions. Still believing him a
man, as himself, only gifted with the spirit of the Lord,
Manoah, with the hospitality peculiar to the Hebrew, besought
him to remain until " we shall have made ready a kid for thee."
And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, " Though thou
detain me, I will not eat of thy bread. And if thou wilt offer a
burnt-offering thou must offer it unto the Lord ; for Manoah
knew not that he was an angel of the Lord. And Manoah said,
What is thy name ? that when thy sayings come to pass, we
may do thee honor. And the angel of the Lord said unto him,
Wherefore askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret }
So Manoah took a kid with a meat-offering, and offered it upon
a rock unto the Lord. And it came to pass, when the flame
went up toward heaven from off the altar, the angel of the Lord
ascended in the flame of the altar, and Manoah and his wife
looked on it, and fell with their faces to the ground. And the
angel of the Lord did no more appear unto Manoah and his
wife : then Manoah knew he was an angel of the Lord. And
Manoah said, We shall surely die, for we have seen God [i. e. a
messenger direct from God.] But his wife said unto him, If
the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have received a
burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands, neither would
Ele have showed us all these things, nor would as at thia
(second) time have told us such things as these." (Judges xii.)
We have quoted this chapter almost at length, because il
contains so much which it is almost imperative for us to con

PERIOD III. WIFE OF MANOAH. 231

aider in a national point of view, before we can come to regard
it in its bearings on our history as women. Any elucidation or
defence of our National belief will not, we trust, be deemed out
of place in a Jewish work, however little it may be pronounced
to have to do with the main point of its subject. In an age
when so much of controversy is going on, when even the inti
mate association, and often friendships, between Hebrew and
Gentile may bring forward peculiar points of belief, to inquire
their differences or varying modes of interpretation — it becomes
imperatively necessary for the young Hebrew of either sex to be
provided with such defence as will, at least, satisfy his own
heart and conscience, and render him invulnerable to the
peculiar expositions proffered to his attention, however little
such defence may weigh with the hereditary prejudices of
his opponents. There is a wide difference between an argu
ment seeking the conversion of another, and that merely
defending our own belief in the same sacred authority as
.*^ives a supposed foundation for the belief of an opponent.
As long ;•& the Christian confines his arguments and quotations
to the New Testament, the Israelite feels perfectly secure, from
his entire rejection of such authority as Divine. But when the
words of the Old Testament are so explained as to bear almost
startlingly upon the creed of our adversaries, then it is we need
careful, though perfectly simple, training, to provide us both
with reply and defence. To be kept in ignorance of the Naza-
rene readings of the Bible does no good whatever ; for there are
very few who can hope to pass through life, particularly now
that social intercourse is so unrestrained, without some approach
to the differences of belief, and their causes. Much better is it
to know clearly the danger we are not unlikely to encounter,
and how to avert it, than to come upon it wholly unprepared.
Not in childhood indeed, for it would be folly to perplex the
young mind with the tenets of two beliefs : then it is simply
necessary to impress and explain the essentials of their own
creed ; but in maturer years, when the opening mind is not only
capable of understanding, but feels itself restless and anxious for
something more than the mere education of childhood : then let
them compare their belief with that of others ; let them know
what and why their opponents so believe, through the enlarged
and liberal views of a spiritually Jewish instructor ; let the light
of reason and revelation be their guide, and we shall find both

^2 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

male and female of the Hebrew youth so confirmed in their own
blessed faith, as to live and die for it, yet eschewing all of
nhberahty, un charitableness, and scorn, towards those of other
and less enlightened creeds.

The chapter under consideration is one of those much regarded
by the Nazarene, ana always brought forward in controversial
discussion. From Manoah's simple words, "We have seen
God, they believe, that wherever the "angel of the Lord" is
mentioned, it signifies the second person of the Godhead ; and
that as He took visible form to our ancestors of old, so we miff lit
equally believe in His taking the form of Jesus to save the world.
To a mere superficial thinker this argument might prove
dangerous ; and we are therefore anxious to explain this chapter
according to the Israelite's belief. In the first place, we refuse
to see m this messenger anything more than the Word of God
declares, " an angel of the Lord," simply because the Eternal
said unto Moses, m answer to his earnest entreaty, "Show me
thy glory, THOU CANST NOT SEE MY FACE : FOR THERE SHALL
NO MAN SEE ME, AND LIVE/' And we therefore know, that no
man has or ever can see His face, and live ; for God is a God
of truth, and knows not the very shadow of a change. That
which He has once said is immutable, unwavering, changeless
a^ Himself. That there may be, even in the books of Moses,
one or two verses seeming to contradict this assertion, as in
Exodus xxiv., verses 10 and 11, and in verse 11 of chapter
xxxni., is of no importance, being either a wrong translation, or
the mere manner of writing, to bring down the solemn appear
ance of the glory of God to the comprehension of the mixed
multitude, and impossible to be weighed a single moment with
the words of the Most High Himself. Would He declare the
solemn truth in one part of His Holy Word, confirming it by
every prophet, and in another part command His peopfe, as a
condition of their salvation, to believe on His appearing on
earth, and conversing face to face with man, first as an angel,
and then in human form ? The very words of Manoah confirm
this belief, and prove it was entertained as strongly by the ancient
as the modern Jews. The Nazarenes take only the last mem
ber of this sentence, forgetting the important fact, " We shall
mrely die, if, indeed, we have seen God," for such is the real
meaning of his words, and that he did not die ; and the simple
truth of his wife's suggestion convinced him, no doubt, as il

PERIOD III. WIFE OF MANOAH. 233

convinces us, that it was not God whom he had seen, but one
of those angelic messengers whom it sometimes pleased the
Lord to employ to deliver His missions unto man,. The nature
of such beings it needs not now to inquire ; but the belief in the
existence of angels is so twined with the belief in the Bible,
that if we disbelieve the one, we must disbelieve the other.
The very word ^pifyl, derived from the Arabic "-jaib, to send, or
employ, signifies merely a messenger, a legate, used indiscrimi
nately for one employed by a king as ambassador, or by the
Lord as an angel, prophet, or priest; and sometimes also
applied to whatever is sent by the Eternal to execute His will,
even as winds and plagues.

The grand and imposing aspect of the angelic countenance,
as we have seen, struck Manoah's wife ; but that neither she nor
her husband supposed him anything more than a prophet or
priest, is evident by their manner of addressing him, and their
entreating him to tarry for refreshment. The angel's reply is
strong confirmation of what we have already stated concerning
his real office. To eat of their brea.d would be confirming their
idea that he was but a man ; to accept their burnt-offering would
be arrogating to himself what was due only to his Heavenly
Master. "If thou offer a burnt-offering thou must offer it unto
the LORD ;" kiot to him, who, though of an angelic nature, was
still nothing but a messenger. Still ignorant that he was an
angel, Manoah asks his name, to do him honor ; and because he
knew how liable were even believing Israelites to turn aside from
the worship of the immutable God to worship others, and jealous
for the glory of his Master, the angel refused to tell his name,
declaring it was secret — that when his words came to pass,
Manoah or his wife might not have even a name to turn aside
their thoughts from the one sole God ; still, to convince them
he was not a mere mortal, but carne direct from the Lord, he
ascended, or disappeared, in the flame of the altar, as had been
the sign of the divine acceptance of the offering, from the sacri
fice of Abel downwards. And it was knowing this, and recog
nising the immediate agency of the Most High, in thus sending
one of His own messengers, that so overwhelmed Manoah and
his wife with religious awe, as to cause them to fall with their
jaces to the ground, not daring to look even upon the semblance
of His glory.

A layman, and a lowly individual of his father's tribe, it was

234 THE \VOMEN OF ISRAEL.

not unnatural that Manoah should even be more awe-struck,
than rejoiced, at the revelation so graciously vouchsafed ; and
whilst the mistaken idea engrossed him, if, indeed, it ever did.
that he had conversed with God, he could not do otherwise than
fear instant death, for, like all his brethren, he knew the God of
Israel was a God of truth ; and, therefore, if he had seen him,
he must cease to live. The ready answer of his wife removed
these groundless fears ; and while it told him, that if it had
pleased the Lord to kill them, He would not have accepted
offerings at their hands, or so revealed His will, it must equally
have convinced him, as a believer in the revelation of the Lord
through Moses, that it was not God, but his messenger whom
lie had seen.

Such is the simple rendering of this very simple chapter ;
while the second commandment, and the words already quoted,
|* No man can see me, and live," with the firm belief that God
is TRUTH, are all sufficient wherewith satisfactorily to explain, both
to our own hearts and to those of our children, every verse that
may seem to read slightly contradictory, and supply us with an
impenetrable shield, against which the reasonings of our oppo
nents must fell blunted and harmless to the ground.

Regarding this narrative in its bearings on our history as
Women of Israel, it is confirmation strong of our always attested
declaration, that neither Written nor Oral Law interfered with
the perfect equality of man and wife. The chapter before us
displays a simple and natural picture of conjugal confidence and
equa'ity, and of the respective peculiarities of man and woman.
It is impossible to read this chapter, without perceiving that
Manoah's wife was a perfectly free agent, only bound by the
links of love and confidence which the marriage law enjoins.
As the mother of the child selected to deliver Israel in part from
the Philistines, she was even of more importance in the sight of
God than her husband, a fact inferred from the angel appearing
both times to her, and only addressing Manoah when addressed
by him. We find, too, Manoah including her alike in all he
said and did. " Let us detain thee, until we have prepared a
kid," &c. In the religious observance of the burnt-offering, and
in the lowly prostration acknowledging the divine power,
Manoah and his wife are separately named, proving her perfect
equality in all religious observances, and her right to partake of
them. That the angel never again appeared either to Manoab

PERIOD III. WIFE OF MANOAH. 235

or his wife, is the proof to them that he was a messenger from
the Lord. The words, " we shall surely die," included her in
the penalty supposed to have been incurred, and mark the
female as equally a responsible agent as the male. Still more
clearly demonstrative that the Hebrew wife really occupied the
free and equal position which the laws of God Himself assigned
her, is the fact that it was her ready wit, and quickness of intel
lect, which reassured her husband. She had been awe-struck
like himself, but yet, perfectly in accordance with woman's
nature, was the first to comprehend the real intention of the
revelation. Man's more solid nature and deeper thought,
require time for mature judgment — woman's quicker fancy, and
often more easily excited feeling, give her the advantage in the
rapidity of comprehension, and, very often, in the correctness of
judgment, which man's greater solidity strengthens and ma
tures.

But that Manoah's wife could thus comprehend, and thus
correctly judge, implies a domestic and social position which
not only permitted, but exercised these peculiar faculties. In an
enslaved and degraded position, their possession was practically
and theoretically impossible.

We find, then, much even in this brief chapter to interest and
instruct us, alike as Hebrew women, and as women taken
generally. In the latter, we shall do well to reflect on the sim
ple trusting confidence of Manoah's wife, seeming the more
tender and deferential from the greater correctness of judgment
manifested afterwards. And so it should always be. However
woman may be naturally endowed with superior attainment0,
with, perhaps, even a greater share of strength and firmness, and
a quicker aptitude for intellectual acquirements, still it is her
bounden duty so to guide and use these gifts, that they shall
never in any way jar upon the feelings of the one chosen as her
husband ; and check mutual confidence and love by that assump
tion of superiority, even granted it exist, of all things most irri
tating to man's nature. It is woman's province to influence,
never to dictate j to conceal, rather than assume superiority.
She may find many and many an opportunity to use it for the
good of her husband and children, as was the case with the wife
of Manoah ; but never let her display it — never let her permit
her husband to feel his inferiority — never let her withhold con
fidence, from the mistaken notbn that as her judgment is as

236 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

good, if not better than his, she cannot need his advice or inter«
ference — for if she does, she may rest assured that from thai
Instant her influence is at an end for ever.

CHAPTER V.

NAOMI.

WE now come to a portion of our history as women of Israel,
w\ich, from the loveliness of female character that it displays,
has in neither history nor romance been equalled. In the Bible
it is termed the book of Ruth ; but as Ruth does not properly
belong, by birth and ancestry, to the women of Israel, Naomi
must be the subject of our consideration. With her history,
however, Ruth is so entwined, that we cannot reflect on the one
without also pausing on the touching beauty of the other.

The country of Moab, situated in the north-east part of
Arabia Petrsea, was separated from Judea by the desolate tract
of the Dead Sea, and the river Arnon. It could not probably
be said ever to Live formed part of the land of Canaan ; but was
one of those na:ions which the Eternal expressly commanded
His people to spare : see Deut. ii. 9.

The Dead Sea was also the boundary of the tribe of Judah ;
and it is rather a remarkable fact, that Judah and Simeon are
the only tribes of Israel who appear to have driven out all the
previous Canaanitish possessors. Judah was the first appointed
by the Most High to go up against the land ; and, accompanied
by his brother Simeon, evinced not only more obedience but
more valor and military skill. We do not read of them, as of
Benjamin, Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali, and
Dan, who, with scarcely any fighting, entered into peaceful cove
nants with the Canaanites, and permitted them to dwell with
them even in their cities. Nor, in consequence, do we find
recorded of the tribe of JudaL those awful crimes and wilful

PERIOD III. NAOMI. 231

idolatries practised by his brethren. In the early part of
Jewish history, Judah was undoubtedly the most faithful tribe,
else had he not been the chosen branch, from which, in God's
own time, will spring our Restorer and Messiah.

Elimelech was a man of this valiant tribe, and, in consequence
of a severe famine which devastated Judea (the punishment, in
all probability, of national sin), he removed his family, consist
ing of a wife and two sons, to the country of Moab, not far dis
tant from their native city, Bethlehem-Judah or Ephratah.
Elimelech died in Moab, not very long after he sojourned there ; and
his two sons, Chilion and Mahlon, took them wives of the women
of Moab, and dwelled there about ten years. Such unions were
contrary to the given Law of God ; and we may infer that, not
withstanding the virtue and attractions of those selected, the act
itself as disobedience was displeasing in the sight of the Lord,
from the early deaths, without leaving children, of Elimelech's
two sons. This, however, is a mere suggestion which may or
may not be, and does not infer Divine displeasure against either
< )rpah or Ruth ; as those not under the Law were not bound by
its instructions.

During the lifetime of her husband and sons, we hear nothing
of Naomi ; but it is by her conduct and sentiments in adversity,
and the strong affection borne towards her by her daughters-in-
law, that we may judge of her previous character.

A faithful wife, an affectionate mother — gentle, meek, trusting
— manifesting a simple, guileless piety in every relation, every
circumstance of life ; such she must have been, or we should not
find her in affliction the character which the Word of God
displays.

It is not always in prosperity that we discover the true graces
of a spiritual character. The quiet, unostentatious discharge of
domestic duty — the fond, unwavering affections of domestic life
— these strike us n'-t ; nay, we often pass them by, wondering
at the simplicity and tame-spiritedness which can rest content in
such unexciting scenes. But when adversity comes, and strength
and piety is to an extraordinary degree displayed, then it is we
learn that it is in unexciting scenes woman's character is best
matured ; and we may chance to envy those whom we had
before almost despised.

The heart of the Hebrew widow yearned towards that lovely
iand, from which she had been so long a willing exile for hei

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

husband and children's sake — yearned towards it, for it was tha
land of her brethren, where the Lord had set up His only
Tabernacle ; where His law had assured her of His especial pro
tection — for she was a widow in Israel ; where her full heart
could pour itself before Him in the congregation of her people
— could worship Him in all points according to His law. In
Moab she was alone of her race and faith. No wonder she
vearned once more to rest in her native land; or that, lonely
and aged as she was, she should yet set forth on the weary way,
Another reason, also, might thus have urged her: she heard
that " the Lord had visited His people with bread," and, there
fore, she was no longer guiltless in continuing to sojourn in a
heathen land.

Accompanied by her daughters, she departed from " the place
where she was ;" but, after going some little way together, she
tenderly besought them to return, each to .ner mother's house,
praying that the Lord might deal kindly with them, even as they
had dealt with the dead and with her ; and grant them each rest
and peace, with a husband of their own people. Then she kissed
them, and they lifted up their voices and wept, saying, " We will
surely return with thee unto thine own people." They had
lived with her ten years — a long period for the character and
conduct to have been tried — and we see what Naomi's must
have been, by the grief of her two daughters — unable to part
with her, even to return to their own parents. To Naomi, such
separation must also have been a heavy trial ; but she was too
unselfish to wish them to accompany her to a land of strangers.
With renewed tenderness, then, she sought to turn them from
their purpose, telling them she might no longer give them hus
bands ; thus alluding to the law of her people, which commands
the brother or nearest kinsman of the deceased to take unto him
self the childless wife ; and then only do we hear this meek and
pious mother in Israel revert to her heavy affliction. " It griev-
eth me much, for your sakes, that the hand of the Lord is gone
out against me." She recognised the hand of the Lord, and
met her individual sorrows not only with uncomplaining resig
nation, but feeling yet more deeply for her daughters than for
herself, and seeking to console them — leaving her own consola
tion to Him who had smitten and would heal. No wonder that
her fond words increased their grief and bade them weep again :
but the effect on the sisters was different. Orpah was one of the

PERIOD III. NAOMI. 239

many, feeling painfully at the moment, passionately desirous to
evince that she felt, but liable to be easily diverted from her pur-
pose. Penetrating no deeper than the surface, she, perhaps,
believed Naomi's words as neither desiring nor requiring her
further company ; and, therefore, repeatedly she kissed hei
mother-in-law and wept, but at length turned back to her own
home. Much as she loved the aged Naomi, earnestly as she
wished to serve her, she had not sufficient firmness and steadi
ness of character to act of herself, and set at naught the persua
sions of affection. Gentle and yielding, it was easier for her to
grieve than to act ; and is not this the nature of many women ?
They fear to abide by their own judgment when two alternatives
are presented to them. They hesitate and linger, fearing to
commit themselves by decision, and so are guided by a breath.
Accustomed to express all their own impulses and feelings with
out regarding others, such natures cannot possibly understand
those firmer and less selfish ones, who would do violence to their
own wishes, to secure what may seem the greater share of hap
piness for another. That Orpah was one of these, solves her
conduct far more justly and agreeably than to suppose her, as
many do, merely professing a love and regret which she could
not really feel — else, she too would have followed Naomi.
Orpah was woman in her weakness ; Ruth, woman in her
strength ; and both are as beautifully true to woman's nature
now as then.

Ruth's own unselfish character gave her the clue to her
mother-in-law's words. She could understand that Naomi
might persuade them to return home, and yet cling to them as
her last ties on earth. To Ruth action was better than passive
grief, deeds than the tenderest words; and, therefore, when
Naomi besought her to follow her sister-in-law, and return to
her own people, Ruth's sole answer was couched in words
exquisitely illustrative of the deep tenderness, the firm devo
tion, the beautiful deference of her individual character : —
" Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following
thee. Whither thou goest, I will go ; and where thou lodgest,
I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my
God. Where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried
The Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part
me and thee ! "

Not the most carefully studied oration could breathe more

240 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

undying, changeless, self-submitting devotion, than these few
and simple words. Naomi was evidently poor. The riches of
the Hebrews did not consist then of such wealth as would pro«
vide for their families after their death ; land and its produce
constituted their possessions ; and these, where there were no
males to cultivate, could not prevent the female survivors from
being poor as well as bereaved. Naomi's return to her own
land would, of course, according to the law of God, secure her
provision ; but in the constant rebellion and disobedience of the
people, it was precarious and uncertain — she might not even be
recognised by her countrymen, so long a time had elapsed since
she had left Ephratah. By her earnest entreaties for her
daughters to return, it is evident that sufficiency and comfort
marked their own homes. Yet Ruth unhesitatingly resigned
them all to share her mother-in-law's fate, whatever it might be.
Bidding farewell to the friends, scenes, and associations of her
youth, not for a time, but for a life, some cause for this pure
devoted love there must have been. Ruth's simple words not
only reveal _the beauty of her own character, but that of the
aged Naomi. Affection is ever the impulse to devotion and
unselfishness. The human heart ever needs something to which
so to cling as to be drawn out from self, and Ruth was not
a character to devote her affections and energies to an unworthy
object. We know what the character of Naomi must have
been in ^ those ten or twelve years of which we hear nothing,
by the simple devotedness of Ruth in her adversity.

And what a comfort to that lone heart must have been the
soothing words and " steadfast mindedness " of the Moabitish
damsel. Must not she whom we shall find, under every circum
stance of joy or grief, looking to the Lord alone, and tracing
all things from His Almighty hand, have felt this comfort came
from him — and that even then she had not trusted in vain.
In the midst of affliction He sent consolation ; in her deepest
loneliness, raised up an earthly friend. Here, as we have
already seen in the love of Isaac for Rebekah, we find the ten
der compassion of the Eternal for His creatures manifested in
giving human comfort ; lie not only pours spiritual balm into
the bleeding heart, but provides some being on whom its qui
vering affections may again find rest, and whose faithful lov<*
shaH fill the aching void. To the bereaved wife and mother,
left in her old age alone, a withered tree from which every leaf

PERIOD III. — NAOMI. 241

and flower has gone, with no hope of ever bearing more, Ruth's
affection must have been indeed a precious balm. Without
her, Naomi had been alone, and oh, at all times, how fearful is
the suffering included in that word \ Yet more in the adver
sity of bereavement and old age !

We do not hear how long the travellers journeyed, but Holy
Writ simply, yet forcibly, brings before us the wonder and sym
pathy excited by the Bethlehemites on Naomi's return, " and
it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all
the city was moved about them, and they said, ' Is this
Naomi ? ' ' Can we not fancy the whole city flocking to ook
upon the travellers, to discover if indeed the rumor of Naomi's
return could be correct — and anxious, if it were, to give her
kindly welcome ? Struck by her look of years and sorrow,
remembering her only as the fair and pleasant-looking wife of
Elimelech, then in her freshest prime, marvelling one to another,
can this indeed be Naomi ? It is a complete picture of that
primitive union of family and tribe, peculiar to early Judaism.
Men were not then so engrossed with self, as to feel no sympa
thy, no interest, out of their own confined circle. They could
spare both time and feeling to " be moved " at the return of a
country-woman, who had been absent so long ; and to grieve
with her at those heavy afflictions which caused her to reply to
their eager greetings, "Call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for
the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me ; I went out full,
and the Lcfi hath brought me home again empty. Why then
call ye me Naomi, seeing that the Lord hath testified against
me, and the Almighty hath afflicted rne ? "

Again we find Naomi in meek submission referring all the
events of her life to her God, yet uttering no complaint ; she
alludes to her heavy afflictions indeed, — alludes to them as
afflictions, as God himself ordained — not as some enthusiasts
would seek to persuade us, that all bereavements'are to be con.
sidered joys, and so received with thanksgiving and praise, that
pain is not to be pain, if sent by the hand of the Lord. This is not
the spirit of the Jewish religion, as taught and practised in the
Bible. Our Father demands not such violence done to the
heart which lie hath so mercifully and so wisely stored with
such vast capabilities of pleasure and of pain. lie demands
not that sorrow is to be looked on as joy, and joy to be despised
*s leading uc for from Him When He tries us in affliction,

242 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL,

where would be its spiritual improvement in faith and submis
sion," if we are to welcome it as joy ? Where would ba tho
trial of pain, if it be not pain ? No ! God loves us too well to
forbid the healing and saving influence of that holy grief,
which, without detaching us from the sweet and lovely links of
earth that He Himself vouchsafed, will yet lead us to Him,
convinced that lie afflicts for our eternal good ; that He acts,
even in bereavement, through His changeless love, and that He
who smote, in His own time will heal. No sorrow has yet
been soothed by the vain philosophy which would seek to
lessen either its pang or its extent. The sufferer must weep
and mourn awhile ; but if it be in the spirit of Naomi there
will still be comfort found.

Naomi makes no complaint ; but how deeply she feels the
contrast between her return to, and her departure from, Bethle
hem, we read in her shrinking from the name of her youth,
which, signifying pleasantness, sweetness, and grace, too pain
fully recalled the days when those terms were applicable, not
only to the charms of her personal character, but the pleasant
ness and sweetness of her daily life. Bitterness and sadness
were more applicable to her present lot, than the sweetness and
joyance which had characterized it heretofore ; and therefore
she bids them call her Mara — but it is not complaint ; it is but
the natural shrinking of humanity from the memory of the past,
contrasted with the suffering of the present.

It was at the beginning of the barley harvest Naomi and her
daughter-in-law arrived at Bethlehem. There, it appears from
the context, the former sought a retired and very humble dwell
ing. Notwithstanding that she had a wealthy kinsman, of the
family of Elimelech, who, had she applied to him, was bound
by the law to give her all the relief she needed, the gentle,
unassuming nature of the widow preferred retirement and lowli
ness, to dair^ng the attention of her wealthy kinsman. The
contrast between their respective positions was too great; and
how beautifully does this shrinking from making herself known
to Boaz, or even from revealing his existence to Ruth, betray
her gentle dignity ! — and that self-esteem, ever proceeding from
true piety. The character of Naomi is consistent in all its parts,
forcibly marking one who, from youth to age, was found true
to herself and to her God.

The holy narration tells us, that " it was Ruth's hap to light

PERIOD III. NAOMI. 248

on a part of the field belonging to Boaz." Had she known his
near connexion, her refinement and delicacy of feeling would
have led her to any other field in preference. The whole scene
which follows is a most beautiful illustration of the domestic
manners and customs- of the early Jews, and all in exact accord
ance with the given law. The kind and conciliatory manner
of Boaz, " the mighty man of wealth," to his dependents ; his
salutation, and their reply ; evince how completely the thought
and recollection of the God of Israel was entwined with the
daily work of his people. The intimate acquaintance which
Boaz must have had with all his household, male and female,
from his instant discovery of the youthful stranger, ard the
reply of the reapers, all breathe a refinement and civilization of
feeling and action, found at this period only amidst the peoplo
of the Lord.

Boaz confirmed the kindness of his dependents, by address
ing Ruth in words of such gentle courtesy, peculiarly adapted
to reassure and soothe her. He not only tells her to glean in
his field alone — there was no need for her to go further — but
to abide by his maidens, thus removing unconsciously all pain
ful feelings on her being a Moabitish stranger, which would keep
her aloof. He told her, too, to follow close after the reapers,
that she should receive neither harshness nor insult, and when
she was athirst, to drink freely from that which the young men
had drawn.

With the respect ever proffered to real goodness, and
astonished at such unexpected kindness, Ruth replied in words,
the meekness and humility of which increased Boaz's preposses
sion in her favor, and confirmed all which rumor had already pro
claimed concerning her. " Why have I found grace in thy eyes,"
she said, " that thou shouldst take this knowledge of me, seeing
I am a stranger ?" And how must her heart have throbbed
with natural pleasure at Boaz's rejoinder, " It hath been fully
showed me all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law,
since the death of thine husband : how thou hast left father and
mothei, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a
people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recom
pense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord
God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust."
Deserved approbation is sweet, however some stern Stoics may
8a;r that virtue is its own reward, and if conscience approves

244 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

we need no more. Ruth must at once have felt thai it was not
the mere kindness springing from a good heart, which dictated
Boaz's conduct to her. but that she was known and appreciated,
stranger as she was. A coarser and more worldly nature than
that of Boaz, even while it equally benefited, would have
exalted itself, not the being it served ; would have manifested
kindness only because it would obtain personal praise, and care
little for the feeling of the person served. Boaz, on the con
trary, removed the idea of obligation to himself by elevating
Ruth, and making her believe that to her own virtue, not to his
kindness, she owed the attention she received. " Let me still
rind favor in thy sight, my lord," was her grateful reply ; " for
thou hast comforted me, and hast spoken friendly to thy hand
maid, though I be not like one of thine own handmaidens." We
never find Ruth forgetting her origin, nor in any way assuming
the privileges which her acceptance of and belief in Naomi's
God might naturally have assigned her ; a lowliness which
secured her, unasked, the privileges which, from a contrary
conduct, would, no doubt, have been refused.

Not content with desiring her freely to share the meal pro
vided for his reapers, Boaz himself reached her the " parched
corn," — seeing that she ate till she was sufficed ; and when she
rose up again to glean, he gave orders to let her glean amid
the sheaves, and reproach her not, and also " to let fall some
handfuls on purpose for her." His generosity, and her own
perseverance, enabled her to take home an ephah of barley.
And Naomi, eager to bring her child refreshment, not knowing
how she might have fared during the day, " brought forth and
gave to her the food which she had reserved for her ;" affection
ately asking from her, at the same time, where and what she
had gleaned, and fervently blessing him who had thus taken
knowledge of her. Ruth's reply elicited a burst of thanksgiving
from Naomi. " Blessed be the Lord, who hath not left off hia
kindness to the living and the dead." She felt it was no chance,
but her God, who had guided Ruth to the field of their kins
man, and infused his heart with kindness towards her. Con
vinced now that their restoration to their rights would be
brought about by the direct agency of her God, she no longer
scrupled to impart to Ruth the near relationship of Boaz ; and
when Ruth repeated his -injunctions, to keep fast by his young
men until they had ended all his harvest, Naomi, still tracing

PERIOD III. NAOMI. 245

Jvine agency, gladly replied, " It is good, my daughter, that
thou go oat with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any
other tield." And Ruth, in unquestioning obedience, " kept fast
by the maidens of Boaz, to glean unto the end of the barley
and wheat harvest, and dwelt with her mother-in-law." Not
all that was in all probability reported of her devotion and
beauty, could tempt her to turn aside from her lowly path of
usefulness and good. Novelty and change could have had no
glare for her, or she might have restlessly longed to join the
gleaners of other fields. She was too grateful for the friendly
kindness of Boaz, too devoted to her mother-in-law, to wish to
go beyond the field of the former, or the humble house of the
latter. " Where thou lodgest I will lodge." she had said, and
her words were but the index of her actionj.

But the time had now come when her earthly lot was to
undergo a material change. Naomi, who had, in all probability,
passed the intervening days in thought and prayer, determined
on seeking the rest and prosperity of her devoted daughter,
according to the dictates of the law. She therefore gave Ruth
the necessary directions — directions which to us may appear
strange, and even revolting, but which seem, in the time of
Naomi, to have been authorized by custom, and therefore con
taining nothing whatever indelicate or forward. To Ruth, as a
Moabitess, the whole proceedings might have felt unusual, and
perhaps even painful ; but we have neither remark nor hesita
tion. She asks not wherefore, but simply says, " All that thou
sayest unto me I will do." She had proved the affection and
wisdom of her mother-in-law much too long to doubt them now,
however her own feelings and judgment might shrink from the
course of action proposed. Naomi's influence had ever been that
of love, not of authority, and therefore was she ever sure of
unquestioning obedience.

Human means Naomi refused not to adopt, but still she lell
the entire end of these means to the justice and mercy of her
God. She knew that in His hand was the heart of Boaz, and
therefore she merely told Ruth how to obtain his attention,,
leaving it to him " to tell thee what thou shalt do ;'' convinced
that the Lord, in whom she trusted, would order the enj
wight

All took place as she had anticipated.

Waking in tenor at midnight — a terror not a little increased

246 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

by finding some one lying at his feet— Boaz demanded, " Who
art thou ?" and received such a reply aa at once calmed his
affright, and roused him to a renewal of all the nobleness and
generosity of his character. Some of our Hebrew translators of
this book suppose Ruth's words, " Spread, therefore, thy skirt
over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman," to signify,
" Give me thy protection as a husband ;" and, as such, was in
exact accordance with the law ; we rather incline towards the
opinion.

The reply of Boaz reassured the trembling suppliant ; for
steadily she had adhered to the straight path of duty, " follow
ing neither young men, neither rich nor poor," so that the whole
city " knew that she was a virtuous woman." He proceeded to
inform her that he was indeed their near kinsman, but there
was one still nearer, whose duty it was to perform the husband's
part ; but that if he refused, even he, Boaz, pledged himself to
do so, as the Lord liveth, bidding her lie down till morning ;
but ere the day broke so that one could recognise another, Ruth
rose to depart, encouraged so to do by him with whom she had
BO fearlessly trusted herself, and whose care for her reputation
was tender and thoughtful as a brother's. Nor did he send her
away empty. Fearful lest she and her mother-in-law might be
in want ere the business could be settled, he filled her veil with
six measures of barley, with which she returned to her home ;
and Naomi bid her sit calmly down until they knew how the
matter would fall.

There is no need to transcribe the events detailed in the
fourth chapter, from the 1st to the 12th verse. A reference to
the word of God itself is all that is needed on the part of our
readers, to impress them forcibly with the beautiful picture of
the manners and customs of our ancestors which it presents.
The gate of the city was always the place of public judgment,
that all the people might be aware of what was going on, and
give their suffrages, and witness for or against. Thither Boaz
repaired the very next morning after his interview with Ruth,
and sat him down, waiting the appearance of the person he haa
named as the nearer of kin than himself. He hailed him on
his approach, and the man willingly turned aside from his
intended path, and sat down by the gate. Boaz next assembled
ten elders, and stated his business. The field which Naomi
wished disposed of, the kinsman seemed willino- to redeem : but

PERIOD III. NAOMI. 247

the remainder of his duty, to raise up the narae of the dead to
his inheritance, he refused, on the plea that to do so would
interfere with his own inheritance ; requiring Boa/, in conse
quence, to redeem the right for himself, as he, the nearest kins
man, could not ; loosening at the same time his shoe, or glove,
as some commentators believe, and giving it to his neighbor, aa
confirmation of his words. Boaz then addressed the elders and
the people, bidding them be witness that he had purchased of
the hand of Naomi all that was Elimelech, Chilion, and Mah-
lon's, and Ruth, the wife of Mahlon. to be his wife, that he might
raise up the name of the dead, and so let it not be cut off from
his brethren, or the gate of his place. And the elders of the
people bore witness joyfully, coupled with earnest aspirations
that the LORD might make the woman he had chosen, like
Rachel and like Leah, who had built up the house of Israel ;
and that he himself might " do worthily in Ephratah, and be
famous in Bethlehem."

And so he was : for as the great-grandfather of David, the
name of Boaz must indeed be still famous in Judah, and dear
to Israel. The uncomplaining submission and lowly trust of
Naomi, and the filial obedience and devotion of Ruth, were
both alike rewarded ; for the latter not only became the wife
of the generous and noble-minded Boaz, but, in due course of
time, God granted her a son ; and Naomi, who had believed
herself but a withered branch, to which neither joy nor fruitful-
ness might ever return, " took the child, and laid it on her
bosom, and became nurse to it." We may read in the lively
greetings of the women of Bethlehem, the joy which this event
occasioned, and their affectionate sympathy in Naomi's previous
affliction. " Blessed be the Lord," they said, " who hath not
left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be
famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of life,
and a nourisher of thine old age, for thy daughter-in-law, who
loveth thee, and who is better to thee than seven sons, hath
borne him."

How beautifully do these words express the women of Israel's
appreciation and love of the gentle Moabitess I The babe
would be a restorer of Naomi's life, and a cherisher of her old
age, for he was RutKs son. She who had been to Naomi
better than seven sons (in the Hebrew the number is unlimited),
would not fail to rear up her child in such virtue and holiness

248 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

as would make his name indeed precious in Israel, and a bless-
ing to his grandmother. Nor can we doubt that the affection
and devotedness marking their mutual intercourse in adversity,
was lessened in prosperity. The love which had been so
mutually proved was not likely to decrease, but would rather
deepen with every passing year.

With the genealogy of Boaz, down to David, this most inter
esting book concludes ; and before we proceed to notice the
beautiful lessons of domestic life which it inculcates, we would
endeavor to prove how mistaken is the objection, sometimes
brought forward, that Ruth, a Moabitess, should have been the
ancestress of David, the elected servant of the Lord. When
Ruth resigned alike home, parents, and the gods of her youth,
she voluntarily engrafted herself upon the children of God ; and
we know that such engrafting was permitted, not only from the
Law, but from its after-explanation by the prophets. In the
Law we repeatedly find the command to save the virgins alive,
even of those nations whom they were commanded to extermi
nate, that they might be brought to the worship of the One
true God, and multiply Israel. In the Prophets we read, that
those of the stranger, whether male or female, who voluntarily
accepted the covenants of the Lord, and kept His sabbaths and
appointed feasts and ordinances, even had they been only
eunuchs before, were (see Isaiah, chap. Ixvi. 3-8), instead of
being despised, to receive a place and a name in His house,
better even than sons and daughters, an everlasting name
which sh.all not be cut off, to be brought to the holy mountain,
and made joyful in His house of prayer; and their* burnt-offer
ings and sacrifices, the essential privilege of the Holy People,
accepted on God's altar. In the Law, too, we find repeated
injunctions, — " love ye the stranger, for ye were strangers in
the land of Egypt ;" and by the whole history of Ruth we see
how precisely this law was obeyed. She was one of those com
ing under the denomination of " the stranger," and who yet,
from her acceptance of the Lord's sabbaths, covenants, &c., all
of which is implied in her own words, " thy God shall be my
God," deserved and received the privileges enumerated above.

She was yet more than a daughter in His sight, because her
acceptance of, and obedience to the Law, were entirely voluntary ;
not merely received from education and as heritage. That God
is no respecter of persons, we read throughout the whole of Ilia

PERIOD III. NAOMI. 249

changeless word. Faithfulness and virtue, the heart, — but
neither birth nor appearance — are valued by Him. And when,
therefore, Ruth turns from all the associations and scenes of her
youth, to adopt and accept the religion of Naomi, and faithfully
serve her God, she is in act no longer a Moabitess (and is only
called so to designate her as a stranger amidst Israel), but as
worthy, if not even more so, to be the ancestress of David, than
the lineal descendants of Abraham, who were Israelites, because
God had selected them so to be ; not for their own sakes, or
their own worth, but simply for the love He bore, and the pro
mise lie made unto Ills favored servants. Ruth became an
Israelite from voluntary adoption. Her filial devotion and
reverence was the most exquisite illustration of how she not
only accepted, but obeyed the Law ; and, from the character
of David, still more than even his selection, we may easily infer
how faithfully she not only obeyed the Law herself, but trans
mitted it to her descendants. That the Eternal should have
selected a king whose great-grandmother was of Moabitish
descent, cannot, then, we think, with any justice be brought
forward as matter either of wonder or objection. If it were
unlawful for anv stranger to be engrafted upon Israel we should
not find so many laws regarding " the stranger" in the Mosaic
code itself, nor their practical commentary in Isaiah, as quoted
above. Her virtue and goodness gave her favor in the sight
alike of God and man, and rendered her worthy of being the
ancestress of that holy line whence the Messiah himself will
spring — while her voluntary acceptance of the God, and of
course the faith, of Naomi, removed from her own Moabitish
birth all reproach, and gave her yet a dearer name in the eyes
of God and of His people than even that of daughter.

To us, as women of Israel, the whole book of Ruth teems
with unspeakable consolation and support. It is a picture so
vivid of the manners, customs, aye, and even feelings of Israel at
that period, that even Gentile writers are struck by it, and refer
to it with high eulogiums on its touching beauty and impressive
truth. Shall we then value it less, and refuse to draw from it
the strong confirmation which it contains of our contested point
— the refined and elevated position of the women of Israel
themselves, and the tender yet respectful consideration with
which they were regarded by their brethren ? Will any on*

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252 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

arid impressive. Ruth's determination to quit her own land,
her parents, and their gods, was indeed one of beautiful self-
devotion ; but it was evidently LOVE, not duty, which impelled
i* and that love must have been called forth by the tenderness
she had originally received. Seldom is the love of the young
excited to such an extent towards an elder, unless by affection
and appreciation from that elder, invited so to love ; and not
only invited but retained by unwavering kindness and regard.
That such feelings had always actuated Naoui towards her
daughter-in-law, we infer, from the caressing tenderness with
which, in all that passes between them, she invariably addressed
her. We never can read either coldness or indifference, much
less the harsh mistrust, breathing often more in tone than actual
words, which sometimes characterizes the manner of an elder
towards a younger. . All she says, either in persuasion to return,
or in advice or inquiry, is with the same caressing love. In her
bringing forth on Ruth's return the remains of the day's meal,
which she had been compelled to take while Ruth was absent,
how touchingly we read the love lingering with her absent child,
the thought of saving for her the evening meal, and bringing it
with eager hnste the moment Ruth appeared, not knowing how
she might have fared during the hot and weary day.

Oh ! while we would have our young sisters imitate, as they
cannot fail to love, the conduct of Ruth, will not their elders do
well to ponder on, and imitate, the tenderness of Naomi ?
Youth will not, cannot love, a pure unselfish love, unless invited
so to do ; no, not even in the sanctuary of home, not even
parents, unless love, not only felt but displayed in confidence
and caressing kindness, marks the parental conduct. Duty done
on either side is not enough, for it is not according to the spirit
of the Lord, and of His word. There love predominates, and so
should it predominate in the homes of His children. We do not
deny that it does, but we would have it displayed as well as felt,
by every member of that hallowed temple, HOME. Brothers and
sisters, parents and children, twined together in that sacred
silvery link, unbroken even by death ; for they know it is immor
tal. Love not only felt, but breathing in every tone, and
actuating every deed; confidence and trust — mutually given,
mutually felt. How thrice blessed would such things make
home ! The parental heart would not then bleed in secret, at
what seems like neglect and unkindness, if not an utter wan* of

PERIOD III. NAOMI. 253

love. Nor would the young spirit shrink within itself, chilled
and sad — yearning for affection spoken as well as felt ; and
utterly unconscious how truly and how deeply they may still
be loved. How different is that home where no gentle word is
heard — n0 caress asked for, or voluntarily bestowed — no inter
change of mutual thought ; but each member walks alone, seek
ing no sympathy save from the stranger, caring not to shed one
(lower on the parental hearth, and believing they have no place
in the parental heart save as a child, words of which, until they
are parents themselves, they know not, guess not, the unutterable
meaning. How different is such a home to that where love is
visible / Where parents and, as its natural consequence, chil
dren vie with each other, as to who can prove it most ; and by
the words and manners of daily life, throw such a beautiful halo
even over its cares and sorrows, as inexpressibly heightens its
sweetest joys.

There are some to doubt the love that dwells in caressing
words and a loving manner. Yet why should it be doubted,
till its absence has been proved? Why should the gentle
power be despised, which will make daily life happier, and so
inexpressibly soothe the sickness and sorrow which ask but love
alone. No ! It is the icy surface we must doubt, for never yet
were there warm and unselfish loving hearts, who could think
it necessary to suppress such fond emotions in the sweet sanctu
ary of home. It is the cold at heart who never give domestic
affections vent, and can therefore never hope so to attract the
young, as to rouse them to evince the love they could have fcl;,
or proffer more than the cold, dull routine of daily duty. We
must love to be loved — we must evince that love, would we so
unite ynmg hearts to our own, as, if needed, to sacrifice all of
self for us, or to devote life, energy, hope, all to our. service.
Would w) have our daughters Ruths, we must be Naomis; we
have no right, no pretence, to demand more than we evince, as
well as give. Reserve, coldness, command, may win us duty,
but duty in the domestic circle is a poor substitute for love.
Even kindness in act is often undervalued, nay, absolutely
unknown, if it be not hallowed by the kindness of manner and
of word. In the world, words and manner may be deceiving, but
not in the temple of home ; for the love which would there
dictate kindness of manner must equally incite kind deeds.
The latter may exist without the former, and if only one maj

254 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

have existence, we may grant the superiority of good deeds
though there are some griefs, some trials, which kindly words
may soothe, where action has no power. Oh ! let us unite the
two as Ruth and Naomi — and however dark and troubled our
earthly course, a light wih1 shine within our homes, which no
sorrow, nor care, nor even death, will have power to darken or
remove. God is Love — the spirit of His word is Love ; and
would we indeed walk according to His dictates, Love, proved
alike in word and deed, must be the Guardian Angel of GUJ
homes !

CHAPTER VI.

HANNAH.

IN the history of the Jews by Josephus, the story of Hannah
is mentioned as taking place before that of Ruth. We pre'ei
following the arrangement of the Bible, although it is not
improbable that Ruth and Hannah lived much at the same
time ; for we find the son of Hannah, when a very old man,
visiting the grandson of Ruth, then in his prime, to choose from
his household his youngest born as the anointed of the Lord.
The period of the existence of these two beautiful female cha-
racteis is in itself of little importance ; but it is interesting to
trace the intimate connexion of their descendants, thrown
together as they were so closely in after life.

There was a certain man, living in the city of Rama Sophim
of Mount Ephraim, an Ephrathite by descent, named Elkanah,
•who had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. It is a remarkable
tact, that this is the very first mention of a man having two
wives since the days of Jacob. Joseph, Moses, Aaron and his
sons, Caleb, Othniel, Lapidoth, Manoah, Elimelech, Chilion, and
Mahlon, all had but one wife ; a striking confirmation of our
former assertion, that though polygamy was permitted, from its

PERIOD III. HANNAH. 255

being an immemorial usage, it was not, in the early days of
Israel, considered a necessary part of their domestic policy ; and
that almost every great and good man selected by the Eternal
to work His will, before the monarchy, had but the one wife
for whom the laws were given ; and so evinced, in their OWD
persons, the incipient dawuings of that more refined and
elevated state of being and society, which in the natural progres
sion of humanity would undoubtedly ensue.

The abuse of the permission to have more than one wife
without transgressing the Law, which grew to such an awful
height during the continuance of the monarchy, is no evidence of
the degrading nature of the Law, but is the literal fulfilment of
the threatened wrath of the Eternal, when the people insisted
upon having an earthly king to rule over them, like other
nations. That he would not only take unto himself their
store and their fields, and their olive-yards and vineyards, but
even their sons and their daughters to minister to his service
and his pleasures ; and, of course, the licentious conduct of the
sovereign would be followed by equal license in his subjects.

But before the monarchy, though the people were ever in
rebellion and disobedience, still no such domestic abuses had
existence. Even when there were two wives, as in the case we
are about to consider, we find the beautiful laws, instituted for
domestic equity and peace, entering and guiding a man's house
hold, as the Eternal had intended in their bestowal. Yet even
these, while they prevented all justice on the part of the
husband, could not entirely do away with the evils of a divided
household, which Sacred Writ never fails to record for our
warning.

" And Elkanah, with his wives and household, went up out
of his city yearly to worship and sacrifice unto the Lord in
Shiloh," then the residence of God's holy ark, and of his priests,
— a practical confirmation of the law so to do, which we have
already noticed. At these times, " he gave to Peninnah his wife,
and to all her sons and daughters, portions, but unto Hannah
he gave a double portion ; for he loved Hannah : though the
Lord had not granted her any children," — loved her for herself,
even above Peninnah, though she had given him a goodly
progeny, and Hannah had but her own gentle virtues, which
were sufficient for her husband.

But in Israel the denial of children was considered too sad &

256 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

reproa:h, too painfully a proof of individual un worthiness in t.hft
sight of God, for the meek spirit of Hannah to endure it with
out bitter grief; a grief painfully aggravated by the provoca
tions of her more favored rival, whose unkind reproaches
increased with every year that diminished Hannah's hope.
Still, Holy Writ tells us of no complaint on the part of Hannah
against Peninnah. As the more beloved by her husband, had
she told him of the continual provocations she received, she
might have been sure of such interference as would have
effectually shielded her from them in future, though at the
expense of alienating Peninnah from her husband, and causing
domestic strife. But such a course of acting was not according
to Hannah's character. It was easier far to suffer than to com
plain ; sweeter far to endure herself than seek revenge upon
another.

Each visit to Shiloh excited anew the reproaches of Penin
nah ; and as this took place some years before Elkanah noticed
the deep grief of his favorite wife, we may in a degree suppose
the extent of Hannah's gentle forbearance. Hers was no trial
of a day, or even a month, but of years ; and can we imagine
anything more trying to the heart and temper, than to live
with one whose tongue was ever bitter with reproach ? because
it is not likely that it was only during their visits to Shiloh that
"Peninnah provoked her sore, to make her fret," and provoked
her for no fault ; for nothing which Hannah herself could
remedy, but simply for being less favored by the Lord. And
yet, how many are there like her ! How many love to reproach
instead of soothe, as if sorrow and disappointment were the
fault of the sufferers, not the loving sentence of the Lord !
How many there are who thus make a daily life bitter to their
fellows, instead of, as they might do, rendering grief less sad,
and inexpressibly heightening joy.

Their visits to Shiloh must have been fraught with deep
suffering to Hannah. It was not only the signal of Peninnah's
aggravated unkindness ; but the very sight of all her fellow-
countrymen flocking to the temple of the Lord,* with their
goodly show of sons and daughters, must have made her pious

* Though that house of God wljch we are accustomed to regard ae
the Temple was not built till the reign of Solomon, the residence of th*
/Vrk of God was always called the Templo. See 1 Sam. i. 9.

PERIOD III. HANNAH. 257

heart shrink deeper and deeper within itself in its own unspoken
woe : and it is shown in her spirit's sad but unmurmuring
inquiry, " Why had the Lord whom she loved and sought to
serve, so reproached and forsaken her ?" That this was really
the case, and her grief was never spoken, never found vent in
reproachful words, we know by Elkanah's gently reproving
address. " Hannah, why weepest thou ?" he said, " why eatest
thou not ? and why is thy heart grieved ? Ara not I better to
thee than ten sons ?" llere there is no reference to anything
but Hannah's visible sorrow, and to Elkanah's natural supposi
tion as to the cause of her grief; and in perfect accordance
with the meek enduring beauty of her true womanly character,
she makes no complaining answer. It would have been easy
for her to exculpate herself for too repining sorrcw by invectives
against her happier rival ; but she who had borne so much and
so long, was far too spiritual for such petty revenge. Answer
to man, save such as affection would dictate, the struggle to
smile and be happy for a loved one's sake, she made none ; but
sought relief, where alone it might be found, at the footstool of
her God — woman's best and surest refuge. For how may man,
even when most loving, most beloved, so know the secret nature
of a woman's heart, as to bring the balm it seeks, and give the
strength it needs ? Elkanah's words reveal the extent and
truth of his love ; and had it not been for the daily provoca
tions of Peninnah, he might indeed have been to Hannah
" better than ten sons :" but she had griefs and trials of which
he knew nothing, — peculiarly her own, as what woman has
not? — and these, in childlike faith and voiceless prayer, she
brought unto her God.

The condition of married women amongst the Jews, in the
time of the Judges, must have been perfectly free and unre
strained. We find her rising up after they had eaten ana
drunk in Shiloh, and without even imparting her intentions to
her husband, much less asking his consent, going perfectly
unattended and unrebuked to the temple of the Lord. There,
in bitterness of soul weeping, she prayed unto the Lord of
Hosts ; and, in perfect accordance with the Mosaic Law, which
expressly provided for such emergencies, she vowed a vow, that
.f the Eternal would in His infinite mercy remember His hand
maid, and grant her a male child, she would devote him unto

258 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Mie Lord all the days of his life, and not a razor should com*
near his head.

But she prayed not aloud, nor in any stated formula of
prayer ; she prayed merely as the heart dictated : " she spoke
in her heart," as we have it in the touching language of Scrip
ture, — only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard ; and
Eli, the high priest, who sat beside one of the posts of the
temple, marked her mouth, and hearing no word, combined
with the agitated figure before him, believed she was drunken,
and, reproaching her, bade her put her wine from her.

It must have been an aggravation of her sorrow to find her
self so misunderstood by one, who, as high priest, she might
with some justice believe would have required no explanation
on her part, but, in the name of the Eternal, have proffered her
relief at once. Still we find nothing in her touchingly beautiful
reply to evince a failing in the firm faith which brought her
there. " No, my lord," she answered, " I am a woman of a
sorrowful spirit ; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink,
but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not
thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial ; for out of the abun
dance of my grief and complaint have I spoken hitherto. Then
Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant
thee thy petition that thou hast asked of Him :" and, without
doubt, without question, Hannah simply answered, " Let thine
handmaid find grace in thy sight," — meaning, to remember her
in his prayers, — and then " she went her way, and did eat, and
her countenance was no more sad."

The exquisite lesson and consolation which these verses con
tain (1 Sam. i. 9-19) we will defer to our concluding observa
tions, now merely narrating the history itself. At the conclusion
of the festival, Elkanah and his family returned to Ramah,
where the Eternal in His mercy remembered His faithful
servant, and taking from her her reproach, in due course of
time granted her the son for which she had so earnestly prayed ;
and in joyful acknowledgment that it was in answer to her
prayer he had been given, she called him Samuel, or "asked
of the Lord."

The time again came round for Elkanah and his family to
make their yearly offerings in Shiloh ; and by the allusion to
a vow of Eikanah's (see verse 21) we may infer that Hanaah

PERIOD III. HANNAH. 259

had of course imparted to him her vow, and received not only
his unqualified sanction, but that he was anxious, in his next
visit to the temple of the Eternal, himself to confirm it. We
find, too, as we ought previously to have noticed, the day after
Hannah had been to the temple, that they (probably herself
and her husband) rose up in the morning early, and " worshipped
before the Lord;" a worship, possibly, of thanksgiving and
rejoicing on the part of both; on Elkanah's that 'his beloved
wife was no longer sad, on Hannah's that her prayer was heard ;
for that it was heard, it is evident she never entertained a
doubt, long before she could have had proof that it really was
so. That this early worship had to do with the vow is, how
ever, of course a mere suggestion : the Word of God is open
to all ; we would not compel the adoption of anj suggestion,
to which both reason and feeling cannot give reply.

Hannah, however, when the time of the yearly sacrifice
arrived, refused to go up, saying to her husband, " I will not
go up, till the child is weaned ; and then I will bring him, that
he may appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever :" a
resolution freely approved of by Elkanah. " Do what seemeth
thee good," he replied, " tarry until thou hast weaned him."
This incident is a striking confirmation of all which we brought
forward in the Second Period of our history, regarding the
appearance and the non-appearance of the female part of a
Jewish household in the Temple at the times appointed.

The history of Elkanah and his family illustrates this law
exactly. That women as well as men were to appear in the house
of the Lord, and join in his worship, is proved by both Hannah
and Peninnah, with the latter's children, attending their husband
to Shiloh ; and that the law to go up thrice a year was only
binding upon males from the many causes which might prevent
females, particularly mothers, from so doing, we perceive by
Hannah's tarrying till her child was weaned, and having her
husband's free permission so to do.

The time at length came, when in obedience to her volun
tary vow, Hannah must part from her boy, and deliver him up
to the service of the God whose mercy had bestowed him to her
prayer. Her only one, precious beyond all price ! yet we find
no hesitation, no thought of delay, no idea of forgetting that
which she had vowed, though the nature of her vow, nay, that
she had vowed at all, was unknown to all, even to the high

260 THE WOMEN Of ISRAEL.

priest, who had promised that her prayer should be grank'd
without knowing what it was. Without listening to the mater
nal anxieties that must have engrossed her, we find her, directly
the child was weaned, taking him with her to Shiloh, and three
bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, — offer
ings from the store, and the field, and the vineyard, — all in
exact accordance with the written Law, and they came unto the
house of the Lord, and they slew a bullock there, and brought
the child to Eli. " And she said, O my lord, as thy soul liv-
eth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here praying
unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lo:d hath
given me my petition which I asked of Him, and therefore also
have I lent him to the Lord : as long as he liveth he shall be
lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there," — rathei
an obscure phrase, but probably signifying that Eli worshipped
the Lord, in acknowledgment of His divine goodness, in thus
permitting his words to come to pass, and giving the woman
that which she desired.

The prayer, or rather hymn, of thanksgiving in which Han
nah poured forth her gratitude to her God in a strain of the
sublimest poetry and vivid conception of the power and good
ness of Him whom she addressed, is a forcible illustration of the
intellectual as well as the spiritual piety which characterized the
women of Israel, and which in its very existence denies the pos
sibility of degradation applying to women, either individually,
socially, or domestically. Their intellect must have been of *a
very superior grade ; while the facility of throwing the aspira-
iions of the spirit into the sublimest poetry, evinces constant
practice in so doing, and proves how completely prayer and
thanksgiving impregnated their vital breath. It is useless quot
ing this beautiful song of praise, when the blessed word which
contains it is open to all classes and ages of readers; but wa
would beseech our young friends not to be satisfied with this
uninspired notice, but to turn to the word themselves, and mark
the soul-felt clinging piety throughout. It is as exact a tran
script of the swelling gratitude of a truly pious heart, as her
prayer before had breathed its bitterness of grief. Some theie
are who gladly come to their God in sorrow, but quite forget
that the seasons of joy should be devoted to Him as well. Han
nah was evidently not of these ; but one of the most perfectly
spiritually pious characters of the Bible. There was no self

PERIOD 111. — H A N N A H . 281

exaltation in her song of praise ; no supposition that for any
individual worth her reproach had been removed ; or even that
any peculiarly meritorious fervor in her prayer had wrought
reply. No ; all was of the LORD. All came from His exceeding
mercy — His omnipotent power. It was he who had made bare
His holy arm, and to the barren given children. He who gave
strength to those that stumbled, while the arms of mighty men
were broken — He who maketh poor, and maketh rich — He who
bringeth low, and lifteth up— He who killelh, and maketh alive
— for " by strength no man shall prevail."

Nor was it only because she was permitted thus to rejoice,
and behold the power she exalted, that Hannah so magnified
the Lord, and believed in His wisdom and love to do all that
He willed. She must have known and felt all her hymn
expressed in her time of grief, else we should not have seen her
in lowly supplication, prostrate in the court of the Lord's house
— beseeching His relief. She must have believed, else she could
not thus have prayed.

Lonely and sad must have been the feelings of this true
Hebrew mother when she returned to her house at Ramah,
leaving her beautiful boy with the high priest, and knowing
that but three times in the year might she behold him ; and
then not to receive from him the service and caresses of a son,
but only to look on him as one devoted to his God and to His
service ! How must her heart have yearned for the engaging
prattle, the caressing playfulness, the lovely looks of clinging
love, which had so blessed her since his birth ! What a blank
in her existence must have been his absence ! and what but
spiritual trust and devoted love to her God, could have brought
her consolation ? The feelings alike of her human and spiritual
nature are so exquisitely portrayed by that beautiful delineator
of woman's spiritual character, Mrs. Hemans, that we can but
refer our readers to her pages, convinced that it will aid them to
enter into the full beauty of Hannah's character, and the extent
of her trial in parting from her boy.*

Licentiousness and sin had crept into the very bosom of the
Temple, through the conduct of the high priest's sons. Yet, in
the midst of impurity, under the too indulgent control of an
aged man whose laxity of parental discipline exposed him to

* See Mrs. Hemans's Poems, vol. iv. p 169.

202 THJC WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the anger of the Lord, still was the child Samuel kept pure an<3
undefiled even as he left his mother's roof, and, whLe yet a
child, ministered before the Lord. His so doing explains and
confirms the law of the Nazarite, and singular vow, to which we
alluded in our Second Period, as implying devotion to the
Lord's service, which even children might perform (see Lev
xxvii. 6) by some personal service. It is thus we so repeatedly
find the Hagiography, or historical parts of the Bible, containing
the practical illustration of the theoretical statutes, exactly as
Moses gave them, and so rendering the Holy Scriptures in very
truth the verified transcript of the Eternal will. Moses' instruc
tions to the elders regarding the practical obedience to the law,
must have been in exact accordance with that which, being
written, was, and is still, open to our perusal ; or we should have
found some traces of its difference in the manners and customs
of our ancestors. All, therefore, in Modern Judaism, which is
accused of contradicting the spirit of the eternal holy word,
cannot have had its origin in either of the laws, oral or written,
transmitted by Moses. We are anxious always to notice, as
forcibly as may be, those portions of the Bible containing the
practical confirmation of the written laws of Moses, because we
have heard (though we can scarcely believe it) that the written
word of the Eternal is pronounced by some as imperfect and
incomplete. The promulgators of such a fearful doctrine are
not perhaps aware that by so doing, and so depriving our
females and youth of both sexes of their only stay, and strength,
and consolation, they are opening a wider avenue and offering a
greater temptation to embrace Christianity, than was ever
proffered by our opponents. To guard the women of Israel from
such insidious danger, we are tempted to wander from our main
subject, whenever the opportunity offers, to give them refuge
and strength by the conviction that for them, at least, the Word
of the Most High is all-sufficient, containing, as it does, in the
historical books, the practical illustration, and in the prophets
the spiritual explanation, of the whole Mosaic system, whether
imparted by word of mouth or dash of pen. Of the delivery or
non-delivery by the Eternal of an oral law, we write not at all^
as it is a subject much too learned and too weighty for a
woman ; and we are ready and willing to submit our opinions
on all points to the wisdom and piety of our venerable sages.
We only affirm, what we think no Hebrew will contradict, thai

PERIOD III. HANNAH. 203

RS the God of Israel is a God of changeless truth and wisdom,
He would not have desired Moses to write that which speech
was to deny ; in other words, that each law must be so perfect
and so exact a counterpart of the other, that in our present
captive state, the Bible provided through the eternal mercy for
tins very emergency, must be the key to both laws, and so per
fect in itself.

Though the evil conduct of the sons of Eli was well known,
HannarTdoes not appear to have entertained a fear as to the
effect of their example upon the tender years of her child. Tt
was not likely that she who, in all her individual joys and sor
rows, came to her God in prayer, should neglect that holy duty
for the welfare of her boy. She had experienced too consolingly
the etfect of faith and prayer, to doubt them now ; and as a
mother, a Hebrew mother — one whose whole heart was love
and praise to God, we may quite believe that, day and night,
her meek and humble orisons arose for her boy, that he might
become all that would make him indeed a faithful servant of his
God ; for in being such, he would be all her heart could wish.
Some mothers, indeed, there may be, who, when they send their
children from them, and provide them with all things needful
for temporal welfare, think they have done sufficient, and only
remember them with mere human, and consequently perish
able, affections ; rejoicing in their prosperity, anxious when ill,
desirous for them to " get on," — an emphatic though not elegant
phrase for the world's success. And if they do all they can to
forward this " getting-on," in the way of education and lavish
expenditure, what more could be required of them ? Some will
answer, " Nothing." Others may feel, as Hannah must have
felt, that though their children may no longer be beneath their
roof — though all of human means is done, to further their
advancement, what will it all avail without the blessing of the
Lord? And how may such blessing be attained, save with
faithful and unceasing PRAYER ? Prayer, that unites us in spirit
alike with our beloved ones, and our God. Oh, is there one
who really loves, be it as a parent, wife, child, betrothed, or
friend, and can y ?t rest secure and happy without prayer ? If
we have never prayed before, we must when we feel love. Can
we love in any single relation of life, and yet not feel the
craving, the desire, the absolute necessity to pour out our hearts
to our God for our beloved ones, and in them for ourselves f

264 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL

Can we rest quiet, incapacitated, perhaps, from active service by
circumstances, and not at least seek to serve by fervent prayer !
And if in every relation of life this must be the effect of love,
oh ! more than in any other must \\e find it in a mother for a
child ! What love can be like hers, so watchful, so changeless,
so unwearied ? And how may she still the anxious throbbings
of her heart, when divided from its earthly treasures, save by
simple trust and fervid prayer ?

^ And when we look back' on the character of Hannah, as it has
already been displayed, can we doubt that such were her feelings,
that she could have supposed merely to leave her child with the
high priest was sufficient — that nothing more depended on her
self? She who in all things had prayed ? No, prayer must
have sanctified her offering, not only when offered, but when
apart from him. She had naught but prayer for him on which
to rest. And might it not have been, nay, was it not, that
mother's prayer, which retained her boy in such pure and lowly
piety, in such singleness of purpose and faithfulness of heart, in
the very midst of the licentiousness reigning around ? Loner
before Samuel could have prayed for himself, must Hannah's
prayers have ascended for him, and in his favor, both with the
Lord and with men — she had her answer.

Every time of her visit to Shiloh, we find Hannah bringing a
little coat, or robe, for her child, the work of her own hands,
which had fondly lingered on the task from month to month,
in the periods of absence ; and Eli blessed Elkanah and his
wife, and said, " the Lord give thee seed of this woman, for the
loan which is lent to the Lord." Now, though not till several
verses after the narration of Hannah's address to the high priest,
when leaving Samuel with him, these words were most proba
bly spoken when he first accepted the offering of the child ; and
the Lord did visit Hannah, and granted her three more sons,
and two daughters, thus powerfully proving, that the Eternal
ever returns double, and more than double, that which we
devote to Him ; be it the affections, the intellect, the will ; or
that more active service, charity and good works. Hannah
devoted to Him her all, her only one, caring not for the conquest
of self which this resignation of her treasure must have
demanded; and the Eternal, in His infinite mercy, granted hei
five in the place of one. And what was it which had originally
turned aside her reproach, and inclined the Lord towards her 1

PER 1*0 D III. HANNAH. 265

No great work — no mighty sacrifice — no wealthy offering ; it
was none of these, but simple faith and heartfelt prayer.

With the information that she became the mother of five
ehikiren, Holy Writ concludes the history of Hannah; but
knowing the longevity of Scriptural characters, we are justified
in inferring that she was spared to feel to the full, all the
happiness which her first-born's matured character must have
excited.

We hear of not one failing from his earliest childhood. Wo
read of his unvarying integrity and single-minded obedience
to the word of his God, from his first repetition to Eli of the
Eternal's awful sentence, to the conclusion of his career ; inter
fering as that obedience so repeatedly did, with his own private
feelings, alike towards Eli, in the selection of a king, and in all
his conduct towards Saul. If Hannah lived until the monarchy,
she must indeed have been blessed in the innate goodness and
love, and in the popularity of her child, and have felt that
in nursing him for the Lord, she had indeed received " her
wages."

The history we have been regarding, though brief in itself, is
yet so fraught with importance to us as women of Israel, and
as women in general, that we trust we shall be pardoned for
dwelling upon it in all its bearings at some length. Forcibly
as the stories of Naomi and Deborah marked the real position
of the Israelitish women, and proved their powers alike of intel
lect, judgment, and spirituality, as well as the deferential light
in which they were regarded by their countrymen, the history
of Hannah brings their perfect freedom and equality, even in
the marriage state, yet more distinctly forward. Deborah was
inspired to do the will of the Lord ; gifted, extraordinarily and
expressly, to judge and deliver her countrymen. Naomi was a
widow, unshackled by either conjugal or household duties, and
with no relation whatever to interfere with her proceedings.
Hannah was one of two wives, her husband living, and the head
of a wealthy household ; consequently, she must have had all
her part of the domestic economy to look after and perform ;
yet there could not have been the very smallest restraint upon
eitli3r her temporal proceedings or spiritual feelings. She does
not even ask her husband's acquiescence, much less depend
upon his consent to seek the house of God. Her very going to
pray must have excited remark, and even scandal, if such had

286 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

not been the common custom of the nation. And if women
were not permitted to pray for themselves, Eli would have
rebuked her presumption, and desired her to send her husband,
as the only chance of her wishes being granted; instead of
which, when once convinced she was praying with earnestness
and in sorrow, he bids her " go in peace," for God would hearken
to her.

Again, had she not possessed perfect fieedora of will and
action, she could not have vowed her child to God. Unless she
had been perfectly sure that her husband reposed sufficient
confidence in her, to abide by her decision, she could not have
so devoted him, without, as it were, mocking the majesty of
the Lord, by making a promise which she had not the power
to perform.

That her vow was subject to the approbation of her husband,
we believe, because such deference was commanded in our law
But Elkanah's full acquiescence throughout, clearly proves the
high esteem in which he held her. She does not ask even his
permission to remain at home, till her child were old enough to
be left with the priest.

In all relating to Samuel, Elkanah was completely secondary.
Even in the bullocks, flowers, and wine, provided for the offering,
it was Hannah who brought and offered them ; Hannah, who
addressed Eli ; Hannah, who chanted the song of thanksgiving
to her God ; and Hannah, who devoted her child. The husband
and father had no more to do with it, than the simple acts of
acquiescence and approval, which he would not have so unhesi
tatingly bestowed, had he not possessed the most perfect crufi-
dence in the judgment and actions of his wife.

That no severe restrictions as to the time, form, or words of
prayer, existed in the time of Hannah, is proved by her seeking
the Temple to pray when it was not the appointed time of
service, when there was no one there but the high priest and
herself; by her speaking in her heart the words which sorrow
and entreaty dictated, without any regard whatever to instituted
forms, which, though indispensable for public service and
national interests, will not give all that is needed to individuals.
Eli marked the lips of Hannah move, but he heard no voice, for
she spake in her heart, and as her heart dictated. And in her
song of thanksgiving, though she prayed aloud, still it was from
the heart alone.

PERIOD III. HANNAH. 267

That forms of prayer were not needed in the time of Hannah,
as they are now, we acknowledge ; and also with all our heart
and soul do we reverence their institution, and acknowledge
their full value, both nationally and individually. Many and
many a one, from incapacity to frame words of prayer, would
be fearfully and painfully bereft, did they not possess the inva
luable treasure of words of prayer, framed by good and learned
men expressly for their use, and hallowed by long years. We
are no advocate for the abolishment of established forms ; for
fully and heartfully we feel their sanctity and value. We would
only beseech our young sisters to accustom themselves some
times in their private hours, to pray and to praise from the
heart, not always to depend on printed words ; not, indeed, to
neglect the latter, but to hallow and add to them, by individual
petitions from individual hearts. Self-knowledge must be their
first step to such secret prayers; for by self-knowledge alone
can they discover their natural sins, their greatest temptations,
their most secret weaknesses, their favorite faults. Self-knowledge
alone can teach them where they are most likely to fail, and
where to be unduly elevated ; and display broadly and unsof-
tened, the true motives of their every action. Self-knowledge
alone can teach them their true position with regard to eternity
and God, and for all these things it is, that every individual
needs individual prayer, wholly and utterly distinct from
established forms ; not, as we said above, to take the latter's
place, but so to be added to them, as to give them life and
breath.

The history of'IIannah is all-sufficient for us to be convinced,
that such individual and heartfelt prayers are not only legal,
according to the laws, but acceptable to the Lord. No restric
tions of man can alter or interfere with that which is divine ;
im i, therefore, nothing which may be told concerning the ineffi-
cacy of individual prayer, unless guided by certain rules, forms,
and words, can do away with the consolation and example
afforded us by the history of our sweet and gentle ancestress,
alike in the manner of her prayer and its reply, and in her
unhesitating, unquestioning, and all-confiding FAITH.

We are thus particular, because we would at once remove the

foul stigma flung by scoffers on our blessed faith, that her female

children have no power to pray, and are, consequently, soulless

nonentities before their God ; and bring forward, from the word

12

268 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

of God itself, the unanswerable assurance, that woman's prayers
are heard, and are acceptable to Him, needing nothing more
than childlike faith in His power to hear and answer, and a lov
ing heart to dictate the imploring words. It is idle for us to say
that we cannot pray, for we know not how appropriately to
address the Supreme ; His awful attributes appal us. and prevent
all connected words. Such may be the sentiments of those who
keep the Eternal far from them ; but not of Israel, His first-born,
first-beloved, whose very sins have no power to separate him
from His God, if he will but repent and believe. " What nation
hath God so near them as Israel, in all we call upon Him for ?
were the precious words of Moses, confirmed by the whole after-
records of the Bible. — Hagiography, Psalms, Proverbs, Prophets,
all and every one teem with the same consoling truth, proclaim
our God as LOVE, the hearer and answerer of prayer, its gracious
receiver, whenever it comes from the heart, and is offered up in
faith. " Call upon me, and I will deliver thee," is the blessed
assurance repeated again and again, in different modes of expres
sion, in every part of the Bible. It is folly, it is guilt to keep
away from prayer, under the misleading plea that God is a
being too pre-eminently holy to be approached. Did we but
really love Him as He commands, with heart, and soul, and
might ; did we but trust in Him, as Abraham did, when " his
faith was accounted righteousness ;" we should find words enough
wherewith to pray and praise. Love would bring us to Him,
believing and rejoicing in that inexhaustible love which would in
such infinite mercy bend down its reviving rays on us, and lift
up^the wearied spirit, till it found rest on the healing sympathy
of its all-compassionating God.

It was thus that Hannah came to Him, loving Him, trusting
Him, yet more than she loved and confided in her husband, the
nearest and dearest tie on earth. She did not think herself too
unworthy to approach and beseech Him, because she knew that
the Law which she obeyed, and the whole history of her people,
teemed with His invitations so to do, and His promises to answer.
She came to Him, because she knew he loved her, and would
have compassion ; and because she so loved Him, that it was fai
easier to pour into His gracious ears her silent sorrows than
breathe them unto man. She came to Him, because she not
only loved, but believed with such a pure and child-like faith, that
when the high priest bade her " Go in peace, and God grant

PERIOD Til. HANNAH. 269

thee thy petition," she returned to her own home so calmly, so
trustingly, that she " did eat, and her countenance was no more

sa<i .» Words that convince us how fully she must have believed

when she prayed, and not only then, but through her lifetime,
for faith is of no instantaneous growth. It is a plant so foreign
to this cold, sceptical, questioning world, that it must be nursed
and tended into life ; it must be a habit, not a feeling ; it must
attend our every prayer, our every spiritual aspiration, or when
most needed, it will fail us, and plunge us into gloom.

But it may be asked in what need we have such perfect and
constant faith. Hannah's position will not bear upon us now,
as we have neither high priest nor Temple, nor any visible mani
festations of the Eternal's interference in human affairs. We
have not, indeed; but we have still His WORD, the BIBLE,
wherein so to learn His attributes, His promises, that during our
captivity we need no more ; for if we disbelieve that Word, no
priest, no temple, no apparently visible reply, would give us the
faith we need, and which Hannah proved.

We need faith to believe that God is love, and our souls
immortal ; that every precious promise in His word is addressed
as emphatically to us individually as to us nationally ; to feel
that there is another and a brighter World, where u eye hath
not seen, neither hath ear heard, what He hath prepared for those
that love Him." Faith to know that we are individually objects
of His love and care, as surely as that every blade of glass and
invisible insect are alike the work of His hand, and the constant
renewal of that power which at a word called forth creation.
We need faith, to discern the workings of an eternal Love and
infinite Goodness in the History of Man, Past and Present ; to
mark through the evil which is often alone visible, the further
ance of that Divine Will and Perfect Good, which runs as a
silver thread through the darkest web, and links this world with
heaven — man with God.

It is for all these things we need Faith : that faith which,
instead of banishing Reason, welcomes and rejoices in her as her
companion and handmaid. Faith may exist without reason ; but
let reason attempt to exclude faith altogether, let the materialist
and scotfer laugh and mock at all things which cannot be sub
stantially proved, and on his bed of death what shall support
him ? Let him explain, if he can, birth and death, the begin-
ninf*1 and the end : and then, and not till then, may he contemn

270 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

and deride those who, contented to be less wise and less inquir*
ing, walk calmly and happily through this dark valley of earth
with the angel, Faith, at their side ; sending up their lowly peti
tions on his aspiring wings : and calmly sinking, when the tale
of life is done, secure, through faith's simple readings of the word
of God, of that everlasting bliss which awaits him in another
and purer world.

With the history of Hannah our Third Period concludes ; and
from the length with which we have treated each separate notice,
\ve have little further to add, save the earnest hope that an
impartial and unprejudiced study of all that we have brought
forward, will convince our readers, that no law for the degradation
and heathenizing the Women of Israel could have had existence
from the Exodus to the Monarchy ; that therefore all statutes to
that effect, which may be quoted, must be Human not Divine,
and cannot be charged to the Law of God, or regarded as
characteristic of the manners and customs of His people.

To us, as women, the whole of the Third Period teems with
guidance and consolation, and, as Women of Israel, must satisfy
us with the confirmation of our equality and elevation. Shall
we, then, feel ashamed of the faith which provides such laws,
and the lineage which counts such characters as Deborah,
Naomi, and Hannah, amongst our ancestry ? Shall we prefer
listening to the mistaken zeal which would persuade us that, as
Hebrew females, we are lowered and degraded, and can only
become spiritually free by deserting the faith of our ancestors,
to looking through the Word of God, and, tracing our privileges
there, make it our glory to reveal them, through our faith and
conduct to the whole Gentile world ? Oh ! will not every woman
nerve heart to prove that her religion comes from that God of
Love and Truth, whose words once spoken will last for ever,
whose Law once given will know no change ; that she has in
that faith enough to give her strength to live, and hope to die;
aye, and to glory in that blessed Law which cared for womin
first, and will care for her for ever ?

END OF VOL. T,

THE

WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

BY

GEACE AGUILAR,

6UTHOB OF "WOMAN'S FRIENDSHIP," "MOTHER'S RECOMPENSE." " VAU3 Oif
CBDARS," ETC.

VOL. II.

NEW YORK :
D APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1, 3, AKD 5 BOND STREET.

1887.

THE

WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

BY

GRACE AGUILAR,

OF "WOMAN'S FRIENDSHIP," "MOTHER'S RECOMPENSE." "VAiK oir

CEDARS," ETC.

VOL. II.

NEW YORK :
D APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1, 3, AND 5 BOND STKEET.
1887.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II

FOURTH PER.OD.

THE MONARCHY.

MM

CHAPTER I.

Michai 7

CHAPTER II.

Abigail 21

CHAPTER III.

Wise Woman of Tekoah. — Woman of Abel. — Rizpah. — Prophet's

Widow 37

CHAPTER IV.

The Shunarnmite 51

CHAPTER V.

Little Israelitish Maid.— Huldah 67

FIFTH PERIOD.

BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY.
CHAPTER I.

The Captivity. — Review of the Book of Ezra. — Suggestions as to

the Identity of the Ahasuerus of Scripture. — Choice of Esther 80

CHAPTER II.

Eatlioi continued 91

CHAPTER III.

fi=sther concluded •. $9

CHAPTER IV.

Review of Events narrated in Ezra and Nehemiah . . 119

CONTENTS.

SIXTH PERIOD.
CONTINUANCE OF THE SECOND TEMPLE.

r*M

CHAPTER I.

Review of the Jewish History, from the Return from Babylon to

the Appeal of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus to Pompey . 127

CHAPTER II.

From the Appeal to Pompey to the Death of Herod . . 139

CHAPTER III.

From the Death of Herod to the War 1 47

CHAPTER IV.

The Martyr- Mother 155

CHAPTER V.

Alexandra 167

CHAPTER VI.

Mariamne ........... 187

CHAPTER VII.

Mariamne continued • 203

CHAPTER VIII.

Mariamne continued , 217

CHAPTER IX.

Mariamne concluded — Alexandra — Salome .... 231

CHAPTER X.

Helena — Berenice 248

CHAPTER XI.

General Remarks 268

SEVENTH PERIOD.

WOMEN OF ISRAEL IN THE PRESENT, AS INFLUENCF.T) BY THE PAST,
CHAPTER I.

The War and Dispersion. — Thoughts on tho Talmnd . . . 277

CHAPTER II.

Talmuiic Ordinances and Tales 289

CHAPTER III

Effects of DLspersjon.-Gene ral Remarks ..... 303

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

FOURTH PERIOD.

CHAPTER I.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY. PATRI
OTISM OF THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL. MIC HAL.

WE are now come to an important change in the history of
Israel ; the first step to her downfall, and the first opening for
the fearful flood of misery and crime which nationally and
individually deluged Judea. We allude to the election of an
earthly king, and the establishment of a temporal monarchy.
In vain the prophet Samuel reasoned and implored, beseeching
them to rest contented with the government already established ;
and in the deepest humility of spirit prayed unto the Lord.
" Hearken unto the voice of the people, in all that they say untc
thee," was the gracious answer, " for they have not rejected thee,
but they have rejected ME, that / should not reign over them."
Awful words, and most awfully fulfilled ! The infinite mercy
of Israel's God would not reject His people, though they had
rejected Him ; but in the very gratification of their desire to
have a king they received their chastisement; a chastisement
not of a year's or a century's continuance, but lasting through
ages and ages of crime, misery, expulsion, persecution, and
working against unhappy Israel even at this present day.

But the Eternal would not expose them to these terrible
effects of their own choice without warning, and by the mouth
of Samuel He told them of all the evils they would experience
under earthly kings, and that they would cry out in their distress
unto the Lord, and then He would not hear them ; but still
they persisted in the very face of that prophetical word. God
granted indeed their request. The people, with the irildesl

8 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

rejoicings, received a king, and beheld a monarchy established ;
but the awful effects thence ensuing ought to convince us, that
the granting our requests is not always the evidence of the
Lord's love and approbation. Better, far better, to rest in Him,
and submit to His will, however it may interfere with our own
short-sighted wishes, than persist in their accomplishment, and
so weary our Father in heaven with repinings and complaints,
as to make Him grant that in anger, which in love He would
refuse. We should, indeed, bring before Him all our wishes,
through the blessed medium of prayer ; but such prayers should
ever be coupled with the entreaty for grace to meet his will, what
ever it may be ; to submit unmurmuringly to His decision ; and
still to realize His love, however He may ordain disappointment.
To such prayers we are assured, through the promises of His
Word, that he will deign to reply ; but for the mere entreaty
for the gratification of earthly wishes, the proneness to complain
and repine at the faintest semblance of denial, oh ! let us remem
ber the misery hurled upon Israel by the granting their request
for a king, and take warning. It is thus that, even in our
history, the Word of God may instruct and guide us, and give
us lessons for daily life and individual petitions from national
examples.

The monarchy of Israel lasted for the period of four hundred
and fifty years, and thus presents us with a fourth division of our
subject ; the social and domestic condition of the Women of
Israel during its continuance being a remarkable proof for or
against our argument, that no law transmitted to us by Moses
commanded our degradation. By a careful study of their
positions, as displayed in the various sketches of female character
found in the historic books, we shall be able at least to discover
if indeed there were any human laws or customs at work coun
teracting the elevating and spiritualizing influence of the statutes
for woman's benefit enjoined by Moses. The fearful crimes, and
awful state of anarchy and rebellion, during the kingdom, will
not indeed allow us either the variety or the completeness of
female characters, as displayed in our first and third periods ;
nor shall we find such beautiful lessons guiding us individually ;
still, in the brief sketches brought before us, there is sufficient
for our conviction that, as women of Israel, we are as elevated
and spiritualized as the most exacting nations can require ; and
that if we are degraded, socially and individually, in the mind of

PERIOD IV. THE MONARCHY.

any man, bearing the honored name of Jew, it is in direct con
tradiction to the laws of God, and completely opposed to the
practice of Judaism, even in that period when her followers were
sunk to the lowest ebb of misery and sin.

The establishment of the kingdom had in all probability less
influence on the social position of the Hebrew women than on
any other class, until the universal wickedness spread even to
them, and caused the prophetical denunciations against their
sins, as distinct from those of man. The first mention of
women in this period, is their coming forth from all the cities of
Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, after the
destruction of Goliath by David, with tabrets, with joy, and with
instruments of music; evidently a voluntary act, and marking
their social position to have been one of perfect freedom, and
also of some influence, else their ascribing to David the glory of
slaying his ten thousands, and Saul only his thousands, would
not have caused the king so much disturbance. We learn too,
from this account, that the gifts of song and the dance, and play
ing upon divers instruments, had not at all degenerated in the
Israelitish women since the time of Miriam, when they echoed
back Moses's song of praise. The skill in these accomplishments
argues an education both polished and refined, very superior to
the instruction accorded to the women of contemporary nations.
Examples of intellect and judgment we have had already, and
shall have again ; therefore it is also clear that their education
was not confined to mere superficial accomplishment, which is
often supposed the only instruction necessary for woman. The
song, and dance, and knowledge of musical instruments, were
but a small portion of the female Hebrew's acquirements ; but
that they are expressly named more than once in the Word of
God, should encourage us alike in their cultivation and in their
enjoyment, granted as sources of recreation, of innocent pleasure,
and yet more as the means of sacred rejoicing. To abuse them,
by making them sources of envy and display, and all kinds of
ill-feeling, or to undervalue and despise them as snares and
foolishness, must both alike be wrong, and prevent the perfec
tion of the heart towards God. He endowed us not with talents
to lie unused, but to make others happy, and to increase our
own innocent and healthful resources, and create an ever-gush
ing spring of gratitude towards Him.

Nor did the women of Israel refrain from national rejoicing

10 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

They were not confined to their own narrow spheres, feeling no
raterest beyond. They did not smile to scorn the holy feeling
of patriotism, which should awaken every female heart to the
joys and griefs, triumphs and defeats of her country, as if they
were her own. They encouraged, they rejoiced in it ; and its
very possession and display proves their equality with man as
citizens of Israel, and children of the Lord. We never find
patriotism in a degraded position — the slave knows not even its
name, much less the glow, the enthusiasm with which it lights
up our being. It is in itself a refining and spiritual principle,
intimately connected with our higher selves. To the Israelites
it must have been yet more powerful than to any other nation,
for their beautiful land was the direct gift of God ; and bearing
every sabbatical year miraculous witness of His unceasing love,
in permitting the sainted earth to give forth of itself sufficient
for the holy people, that they might not have the temptation
of necessity to disobey their law. Israel in captivity may not
indeed be enabled to realize the same feeling of amor patrice as
Israel in Judea ; yet let us not forget that we are exiles, and
sometimes cast a longing look of lingering love to that land
which is still ours, and which will once again, at the mandate
of the Lord, spring up in renewed and renovated loveliness, to
welcome home the weary wanderers " from the north, and from
the south, and from the east, and from the west." Did we
sometimes think of Judea as our own land, we should not
regard our destined return to Jerusalem either with direct
unbelief, or as a change from the creature comforts which we
may be enjoying in our captivity, not at all to be desired.
Daily is the prayer for the rebuilding of Jerusalem offered up ;
yet how very many- are those who, while they would think the
omission of that petition almost sin, yet so little enter into its
spirit, as to shrink from even the thought of returning unto our
own most holy land !

Nor does this feeling towards Jerusalem interfere with the
emotions which we all ought to experience towards the lands
of our adoption — " Seek the peace of the city (or land) whither
I have caused you to be carried away captives," the Lord Him
self proclaimed through His prophet Jeremiah, " and pray unto
the Lord for it ; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace."
What injunction can be stronger or more solemn than these
words, directing even our praters, and thus at once reproving

PERIOD IV. MICHAL. II

the scoffers who scorn the idea of individual petitions benefiting
a nation ? That Israel is deeply susceptible of a love of country
distinct from the love borne towards Judea, is beautifully and
forcibly exemplified in the history of her expulsion from Spain,
and of her secret existence there in the very midst of danger,
and death if discovered, when so many other lands offered a
secure retreat. And shall not we, respected and at peace as we
are, in free and happy England, encourage this refined and
holy feeling, and " pray unto the Lord for it," as for our own
bright land? By woman, even more than man, should this
emotion be experienced — for how heavy would be her burden,
if the peace of home were liable to be disturbed. Let us then re
member our privileges and duties as women of Israel, and bid our
own hearts to glow with patriotism, alike in mourning fondness
for Judea, as in grateful and prayerful affection for the lands
blessing the exile with liberty and rest ; that we may uncon
sciously imbue the hearts of our sons with the same elevating
and purifying emotions, and behold them, while glorying in the
sacred name they bear, as heritors and future denizens of the
land of promise, ever ready to stand forward as able citizens
and valiant defenders of their adopted homes.

In confirmation of our theory, that in the earlier history of
Israel one wife was the natural and legal position of woman, we
find that Saul had no more — or more than the one would have
been specified, as in the case of the other kings. He had two
daughters, Merab and Michal. Of the former, little is mentioned ;
except that she it was, who was the first offered to David as an
incitement to fight for Saul ; who, already envious and malig
nant, thought to slay the valiant youth by the hands of the
Philistines, and thus save himself all shame. But the Lord was
with David, and had departed from Saul ; and the young man
must evidently have won the promised reward, for we read in
Holy Writ, " It came to pass at the time when Merab should
have been given to David, that she was given unto Adriel the
Meholathite to wife;" a course of acting exactly such as we
should expect from the capricious tyrant which Saul had
become. Still David, with a single-mindedness and simple
confidence only found in early youth, and in a youth of virtue,
seems to have 'trusted and fought again ; and this time, evidently
with so much settled foresight and determination, that we might
almost infer that the love which Michal, Saul's second daughter,

12 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

bora towards Dav.d was fully returned, and so inspired the
dangerous expedition on which he ventured.

We have not very much of Michal, nor any particularly
pleasing portraiture of character, yet our history will not be com
plete without noticing all that is recorded concerning her. The
deep love that in her youth she appears to have borne David,
must have exposed her many times to an intensity of suffering
which throws a degree of interest around her, and enlists us
more warmly in her favor than we could otherwise have been.
Jonathan's faithful friendship for David always receives the meed
of our admiration, the more so from his being the son of his
deadliest foe. The love borne towards him by the daughter of
Saul, must have been a yet stronger emotion ; and in conse
quence subjected Michal to still deeper suffering. It does not
appear that Merab loved David ; and therefore Michal's first suf
fering must have been excited by beholding him destined for
another who loved him not ; while she who had given him the
first freshness and fervor of her affections was set aside and dis
regarded. Even when this sorrow was removed by the union
of Merab with Adriel, and her love being reported to her father
it pleased him as the means of ensnaring David, how little con
fidence could she have placed in her father's promise, when she
remembered how he had already deceived ! Her fears of Saul's
caprice were, however, at this time without foundation. She
became the wife of David, whom, we are told, she continued to
love as fondly after marriage as before. In her case it was not
" because the current of true love never will run smooth" that
she loved him, and consequently that, when the desired happi
ness was obtained, its glow dissolved. Peace indeed, and rest
from anxiety, she had not, even when the wife of David. The
love she bore him must continually have exposed her to terror
for his safety, for her father " grew yet the more afraid of David,"
and repeatedly gave orders that he should be slain ; fortunately,
he had taken his son Jonathan into his confidence, and the
young man boldly and firmly stood forward in his friend's
defence, venturing even to call the king's desired deed a sia
against David, who had ever done his duty alike to Saul and to
his country. For a time his pleadings succeeded, and as David
was again with Saul, as in times past, Michal's terror might have
in a degree subsided, and the heart alike of the daughter and
the wife been a brief while at peace. But, again, there was

PERIOD IV. M1CHAL. 1<J

war with the Philistines : and David, true to his heroic charac
ter, went out and fought with them, and slew them with such
great slaughter that they fled from him : yet how might Michal
rejoice in the glorious heroism of her husband, when his deeds
of valor ever recalled the king's deadly hatred, and exposed him
to renewed peril ? Even in the very act of charming, by his
exquisite skill on the harp, the evil spirit from the monarch's
heart, Saul flung the javelin which he had in his hand with such
fierce and deadly aim, that David only escaped instar t death by
starting aside, and the instrument struck the wall. He fled
from the royal presence to his own home, revealing by his sud
den return the danger he had incurred, and recalling all MichaPs
fears. Nor was the danger over. Messengers sent to David's
house Co watch and slay him in the morning, at once roused the
terror and the energy of his devoted wife. David was so uni
versally beloved, that information of the king's intentions towards
him had in all probability been transmitted to Michal by the
messengers themselves, or through the agency of Jonathan, who,
like his sister, was ever on the alert for David's preservation. In
whatever way she received tidings of his danger, it is certain
that she it was whose ^crgy and judgment saved him ; arous
ing him " to save thy f.e to-night, else to-morrow thou wilt bo
slain."

We find neither complaint nor bewailing on the part of Michal,
though she was parting from her husband for an indefinite
period, during which time suffering and horror of every descrip
tion might assail both him and her ; that she felt, even to anguish,
we must believe, for we have been twice told that she ""loved
David." And those who love, can alone have an adequate idea
of all that parting must have been ; yet feeling itself succumbed
before the energy of will, which only sought his preservation,
scarcely allowing time even for words of kindness or one fare
well embrace. " She let him down through a window, and he
went, and fled, and escaped ;" and Michal, not daring to give
way to emotion, busied herself in carrying out her stratagem
to obtain sufficient time for his escape, ere he was pursued. She
laid an image in David's bed, and put a pillow of goat's hair for
his bolster, and covered it with a cloth ; and when' the morning
came, and Saul's messengers demanded David, she calmly told
them he was sick ; and with that information they evidently
returned to their sovereign, probably not at all sorry that David

14 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

was unable to accompany them. The wrath of the king, how
ever, was ncit to be turned aside; he commanded them—
" Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him." And,
again proceeding to his house, the deceit was discovered, and
Michal herself brought before her father.

" Wherefore hast thou deceived me so," he demanded, " and
gent away mine enemy that he has escaped?" And Michal
answered Saul, " He said unto me, Let me go ; why should I
kill thee ?" an answer which, though by the previous narrative
not strictly true, was perhaps allowable from the dangerous and
difficult position in which Michal was placed. To avow the
share she had in his escape, would only have aggravated her
father's anger ; and though the enemy and persecutor of her
innocent husband, yet Saul was still her father ; and Michal,
who nad, no doubt, been brought up in the peculiarly strict and
reverential feelings of Hebrew children to their parents, might
not have felt justified in exciting her father's wrath towards
herself, more than David's escape had already done. The
answer appears to have satisfied Saul so far as his daughter
was concerned ; but the search and pursuit after David con
tinued unabated.

During the immediate pressure of danger, the mind and
heart are supported by their own energy ; and we know not
how fearfully the nerves have been overstrained till the period
of action is past, and we can only be still and endure. How
sadly this must have been the case with Michal we may well
imagine, when we remember that, from the hour of his escape
by her means until he was established in the sovereignty of
Israel, an interval of five or six years, she never looked on the
husband of her love again. Month after month, year after
year, if she heard of him at all, it must have been still as a
wanderer flying from place to place, at the imminent risk of his
life, either from the emissaries of Saul, or from the treachery
and spite of the various courts in which he was compelled to
take a refuge. At one time even the inmate of caves and
deserts — at another forced to feign madness — often in want of
actual food and other necessaries of daily life ; and yet more
than these ; — Michal was a woman, and a loving woman ; and
though the custom of marrying many wives was not illegal
in Judea, and not felt as it would be now, we have already
seen that it was productive of sometimes sorrow and vexation \

PERIOD IV. MICH A L. 15

and to the absent and the loving Michal, the thought that
David had found others to supply her place, and that therefore
he could not need or think of her as she did of him, must have
been fraught with no little degree of bitterness greatly aggra
vating the pang of separation.

Nor was this all. We are told (1 Sam. xxv. 4), "that Saul
had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti, the son
of Laish," an act of capricious tyranny in direct disobedience to
the laws of Israel. A divorce might permit a woman to
become the wife of another man, but no divorce whatever had
taken place between David and Michal ; and consequently
Saul's action must only have proceeded from that determined
persecution of the Lord's Anointed, which urged him to annoy
him in every possible way, even if to do so occasioned disobe
dience to the law. That Michal herself could ever have volun
tarily acquiesced, when we know how " she loved David," is
neither possible nor probable. Saul had become a tyrant even
to his own family ; and the same man who could cast a javelin
at his noble son Jonathan, with the hope to slay him, after
heaping on him all manner of abuse, only because of his love
for, and defence of David, would not scruple to outrage every
feeling of his daughter, and compel her, by the most iniquitous
force, to annul her brief period of connexion with David, and
become the wife of another.

That Michal was the unhappy sufferer, not the agent in
these nefarious and most illegal proceedings, is clearly evident
rom two circumstances. In the first place, we are expressly
told, " th-at Saul gave Michal his daughter," &c. Her name,
as agent is not mentioned, whence we infer that it was her
father's tyranny, against which a weak and defenceless woman
had no power to rebel. In the second, it is clearly demon
strable that she herself was blameless, else would not David
have made her restoration to himself one of the very first
proceedings of his regal power. Had there been even the sem
blance of a divorce, he could not have done this, the law
expressly forbidding it ; but the iniquitous tyranny of Saul, in
this outrage to his child, completely justified David's after-pro
ceedings. He would not visit on a blameless child the sins of a
guilty father, by leaving her in a position to which parental
tyranny had assigned her ; but recalled her to his heart and to
his home, at the very time when, had his noble spirit retained

16 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

any spark of enmity towards the house of Saul, he might, and
with some appearance of justice, have permitted her to remain
neglected and uncared for, in the equivocal station which, as no
divorce had taken place between her and himself, she must una
voidably have occupied in Phalti's house.

The next mention we have of Michal after her restoration to
David, is indicative of a feeling very contrary to that which at
first attracted us towards her, and displays an imperfection of
character which we might perhaps expect from the daughter of
Saul, but certainly not from the wife of David.

For the last twenty years, the ark of God had remained in
Kirjath Jearim, in the house of Abinadab, whose son, Eleazer,
had been sanctified to keep it. Through all the troubles of the
reign of Saul it had quietly remained there ; no inclination
having been demonstrated by either king or subjects to remove
it, and so arguing an indifference to its sacred presence, only too
fully borne out by the many illegal acts of Saul. David could
not feel this indifference. The ark of God was to him so inex
pressibly sacred, that his heart yearned for its holy influence in
the city where he dwelt; and therefore every preparation was
made for conducting it to Hebron with all befitting sanctity and
honor. The fear, however, excited by the smiting of Uzzah for
his irreverence, urged his turning it aside from the direct road
to the city, and bringing it into the house of Obed-edom, the
Gittite. There it abode three months ; and the Lord so
blessed Obed-edom, and all his household, that David again
coveted its presence in his own city, believing with a child-like
and loving faith that the presence of the Lord dwelt there, and
would bless all those who sought to do him reverence and
honor. " So David went and brought up the ark of God from
the house of Obed-edom, to the city of David, with gladness."

It was a very jubilee of rejoicing to the inmates of Hebron.
Trumpets and holy songs marked its progress, and every six
paces sacrifices of oxen and fatl/ngs were offered to the Lord ;
and the king himself, disrobed of all regal ornaments, and
attired simply in a linen ephod as one of the inferior priests, join
ed with his whole heart in the solemn rejoicing, by leaping and
dancing before the Lord. The mode of this holy rejoicing may
read strangely to our refined ears ; but the song and the dance
were ever the natural symbols of rejoicing in Israel. Amuse
ments, which are by many deemed so profane as to be excluded

PERIOD IV. MICHAL. 17

from all professors of religion, were, in Judea and by the
chosen people of God, not only allowed, but sanctified and
hallowed, by their intimate association with the service of the
Lord.

" And as the ark came into the city of David, Michal, Saul's
daughter, looked through a window, and saw the king rejoicing,
&c. And she despised him in her heart." Despised him !
she who had once so loved him ? How could contempt exist
vrith love ? Michal was a very woman ; it was not the leaping
and dancing she despised, but that King David should, without
any semblance of royalty or state, clothed in the lowly garments
of an inferior priest, mingle with the crowds, and become for
the time as one of them. We know that such were her feel
ings by her scornful address to the king, when on the conclusion
of the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings David returned to bless
his household, and was met by Michal, eager to give vent to her
contempt. " How glorious was the king of Israel to-day, who
uncovered himself (meaning removed the coverings of royalty)
in the eyes of the lowest of his servants, even as one of the vain
fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself," alluding to the lowest
class of the people, who were often compelled to remove their
long upper garment, lest it should hinder them in their work.
" And David said unto Michal, It was before the Lord, which
chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint
me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel : and there
fore will I rejoice before the Lord. And I will yet be more
vile than thus, and be base in my own sight : and (yet more)
of the maidservants of which thou hast spoken, shall I be had in
honor ;" a calm yet emphatic reproof, bringing forcibly before
her the folly of her contempt. What were the trappings of
state, the distinction of ranks, before the Eternal ? In His sight
king and serf, prince and peasant, were the same, judged only
by the rendering of the heart towards Him, by their zeal or
indifference in His service. It was the Lord who had made
David what ho was, and therefore what was he more in His
sight than the lowest of his subjects ? Nor did he rejoice
merely from individual thanksgiving. It was the purest joy to
a heart like David's, that to him the blessed privilege was
granted of bringing the ark of the Lord into his city ; a proof
Uiat the Eternal deigned to bless the city of David with His

18 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

immediate presence, and must in itself have created not oLiy
individual, but national rejoicing.

The allusion to his having been chosen in lieu of Michal'a
Bather, and all his house, cannot in any way be regarded as an
ankind and uncalled-for reproach from David to his wife. The
extent of the love he bore her, we infer not only from the fact' of
his recalling her, but from his making her restoration an absolute
condition with Abner ere ne would accept that warrior's
allegiance. Abner was a person of the greatest consequence in
Israel, alike from his near connexion with the family of Saul, his
great influence with the people, and his skill and courage as a
warrior. To obtain his subjection and allegiance was of almost
vital importance to the popularity of David ; yet did that
monarch refuse to receive him, even at the risk of sacrificing
his offered submission, unless he would bring him back his wife.

No feeling, therefore, actuated him towards Michal as Saul's
daughter. Nor would a syllable of reproach have escaped his
lips concerning her parentage, had he not been roused to just
indignation, by her reproaching him with his zeal in the service
of his God. Nothing is more painful, or more difficult to be
borne with patience, than a contemptuous attack on our zeal in
devotion, or on our ardent wish to serve the Lord, either in
glorifying him, or doing good to our fellow-creatures ; and the
nearer and dearer the person who utters such reproach, the more
exquisitely painful is it to bear. Michal does not appear to have
been a religious woman. In no part of her history can we trace
the workings of that secret, yet ever-acting piety, which
characterized so many of her countrywomen. Her very love foi
David would seem to have been excited, not so much from hia
beautiful and unwavering piety, but from the dazzling beauty
and chivaliic qualities which had so distinguished him. Had
she been religious, her joy and thanksgiving that the ark of her
God was permitted to abide in her husband's city would have
occupied her mind, to the exclusion of every petty and con
temptuous feeling. Had she loved David for those spiritual
qualities which had so gained him the loving favor of the
Lord, delight and admiration that to him this privilege was
accorded, must utterly have prevented all thought and emotion
but veneration and rejoicing ; but that it was merely exterior
beauty and brilliant qualities which had attracted her, is clearlv

PERIOD IV. MICHAL. 19

evident from the scornful contempt with which she regarded him,
when these were laid aside for the moment, and naught could
find entrance into the heart of David, but rejoicing, thankfulness,
and holy zeal

David was satisfied with administering a just reproof; but the
Lord was not : and from the punishment which befel Michal, we
must infer that her sin was greater than at a first perusal it may
seem. That it was not contempt of David only which she felt,
but contempt of the holy service in which he was engaged ; and
therefore was it " that Michal the daughter of Saul had no child
unto the day of her death ;" not only debarred from having
children of her own, but even deprived by a subsequent act of
the Eternal's justice of the five she had acquired by adoption.
In 2 Sam. xxi., we find mention of a famine in Israel, which was
to arouse David to the fact that all the awful actions of Saul and
his bloody house were not yet atoned, and reparation to
the Gibeonites still to be made. Seven of Saul's nearest
descendants they demanded should be delivered up to them, in
lieu of either gold or silver, or even execution on the part of
Israel's king. David, guided by the Lord, delivered up in
consequence two of Saul's remaining sons, and his five
grandsons, which Merab his eldest daughter had borne to her
husband Adriel, and whom Holy Writ informs us, " Michal had
brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite."

Thus was she doubly childless, and by a bereavement most
awful in its kind ; yet the very choice of these might not only
be for justice done to the Gibeonites, but to work out still more
fully the Eternal's anger against Michal. The same spirit which
had incited her to scorn His holy service, might have prompted
the very adoption of these children in proud defiance to his
almighty will. Children of her own she might be restrained
from Laving, but who or what was to prevent her adopting the
children of her sister, and making them in every respect her
own ? If such were in truth her incitement to their adoption
(and we only suppose it from an impartial consideration of her
character), how fearfully must she have been taught the sinful
and miserable vanity of striving with the Lord ! How much
better it would have been to have humbled herself in penitence
and prayer before Him, acknowledging the justice of His first
sentence of childishness, and endeavoring so to reform her heart
and life, as not only to become more worthy of her husband'i

20 THE WOMEN OF ISRAE.L.

love, but to regain the loving mercy of the Lord ; not by a
change in His decree, for that was immutable as Himself, but
by the spiritual calm and blessedness which He grants to all
who love Him. Had she done so, she might have been
happier, notwithstanding her having no child, than she had
ever been before ; but of such conduct we have no trace. She
looked only to human means for the acquirement of happiness,
and those proved indeed " the reed wheron if a man lean, it will
go into his hand and pierce it."

The mention of her having brought up the sons of Adriel, is
the last notice which we have of Michal. Her character is not
one to linger on with either pleasure or admiration, and there
fore we cannot regret that we have reached its close. The only
pleasing trait about her is her love for David ; and that he
truly loved her, endows her with an interest scarcely her own.
Nor can we find any part of either her history or character to
hold up as an example. A warning indeed it presents us, and
one which, alas ! but too many of us need. How often doea
silent and unavowed, yet still realized contempt, fill the human
heart, when we witness an outpouring of zeal, to which our own
cold unexcitable natures never can attain ! How frequently do
we condemn enthusiasm as romantic folly, only because to us it
is incomprehensible ; and, an evil still worse, how often do wo
secretly scorn the religion of those whose outward forms may
appear to us childish, or unfounded, and not needed to bring up
our prayers before the Lord ! How many times do we contemn
those who in the merest trifle differ from that standard of holi
ness which we may have set up for ourselves, and refuse to
believe in their sincerity, because its semblance is unlike onr
own. And in scorn and disdain towards those who serve the
Lord with those forms which their conscience approves and dic
tates, — oh ! let i is beware, lest contempt extend to the service
as well as to the servers — to the religion as well as to the
forms. This was the sin of Michal. For this the Lord Him
self chastised her ; and that she was chastised, is an unerring
proof to us how deeply displeasing in the sight of the Eternal
is contempt for holy things. Let us then look with more
charity on the mere outward forms of our brethren, however
they may differ from our own preconceived opinions. Let us
not condemn their zeal, or be too hasty in pronouncing enthusi
asm the service of the lip and not of the heart. If we look

PERIOD IV. ABIGAIL. 21

well within ourselves to know what may be lurking there what
may need rooting out (even if to do so painfully severs the
habits and prejudices of years), to discover if our own hearts and
spirits be perfect with our God, we shall have little time for
contempt towards the religious observances of others, and be thus
factually shielded from following in the mistaken steps of
Michal, and like her incurring the wrath and chastisement of tl*

CHAPTER II.

ABIGAIL.

BEFORE commencing our next biographical sketch, we woula
eall our readers' attention to one verse contained in the history
*e have just completed, as it so strikingly confirms our <£H
repeated assertion, that in the religion of God the women of
Israel were privileged to join in all religious ceremonies, and to
receive the blessings of king or priest equally with the men

IlZon T J n°tiC,ed the Procession of ^e Ark into

Hebron, the sacrifices and shoutings and sounding of the
rumpets; and that when they had brought in the Ark of the

David "n1/. I ** i*8 ^ ^ the midst °f the Tabernacle that
David had pitched for it— and David had sacrificed burnt offer
ings and peace offerings before the Lord-as soon as he had
made an end of the offerings, he blessed the people in the name
of the Lord of Hosts And he dealt among 111 the people, ev™
the T «7 mUltltUde °f Israd' as Wel1 to the WOME* as
and a fl '/ f^ °™ * S*e °f bread' a ^Ood Piece of fles«,
his hous^n >f Wme ; S° a11 the PeoPIe ^parted, every one to

rrnir°fSt PubH;c.reJ°icing^ ^ is generally thought sufficient to
provide for farmhes not for individuals. In Israel, we find every

out for aWa7l WltVLe meanS °f not °nlv f-sti"S f- t e dav,
out for some days afterwards. And by the particular mention

22 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

of women as well as men, we see that they were not onh
witnesses of the sacred procession and of the sacrifices, but were
singled out by the king as receivers, alike of his blessing and his
bounty. This is but a trifling circumstance in itself; yet every
verse in the Word of God tending to make manifest the equality
of the Hebrew females, their peculiar and glorious privileges as
women of Israel, is of no small importance. According even to
the ultra orthodox, the law and its traditionary explanation
must have been in force, both in theory and practice, during
the monarchy of Israel ; and if we can find no evidence there
of the slavery and ignorance of woman, it is clear that the laws
which are said to command these things have no foundation in
Judaism.

We now come to a character which proves the dignity arid
elevation of the Israelitish woman most completely. There was
a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel ; and the
man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thou
sand goats. His name was Nabal, of the house of Caleb,
churlish in his disposition, and evil in his doings. He had
a wife named Abigail, of whom we are expressly told by the
Sacred Historian, that "she was a woman of good understand
ing and of a beautiful countenance." How such a superior per
son could ever have become the wife of the churlish Nabal, we
might be at a loss to discover, did we not feel with a quaint old
chronicler, that love of wealth was as likely to be found in
ancient Israel as in other nations, and that Nabal's wealth had
in consequence been a greater attraction in the eyes of A oigail's
father than the domestic happiness of his child, which happi
ness an evil temper must inevitably have destroyed ; the beauty
and the very gifts of Abigail were likely to have won Nabal'a
love ; for affection and even kindness may be found in churlish
dispositions, though neither can be pleasantly demonstrated.
Perfect freedom and equality Abigail evidently enjoyed in her
husband's house ; but the want of companionship for her supe
rior understanding, the constant annoyances which Nabal's
temper must have occasioned her, even if not shown to herself,
displayed broadly in her household and tc all who sought
fa/ors or even common courtesy at his hand, must have pain
fully embittered her domestic life. Still we do not find that
either her energy or happy temper sank under it, as would hav^e
been the case with any but a very superior mind. Nothing is

PERIOD IV. — ABIGAIL. 28

so infectious as an evil temper. The strongest control, the mos
enduring and everacting piety, the most determined resolutioL
to bear and forbear, to love and to forgive, however often pained
or annoyed ; all these must be experienced and practised by i«
wife, if the evil temper of her husband really fails to sour hers.
Some meek gentle dispositions and unwavering sweetness of
temper, may indeed stand the torrent of churlishness uninjured;
but in these, though the temper does not fail, health and energy
both succumb, and the most lasting misery is the conse
quence. Abigail evidently did not belong to this latter class, or
she could not have acted in an emergency of terror as we find
she did.

The confusion and misery reigning in Judea, from the Lord's
rejection of Saul until his death, do not appear to have pene
trated as far as Carmel, so as to interfere with the usual rural
employments of the Israelites. Rumors of the contest between
Saul and David, of the cruelties of the former and troubles of
the latter, had no doubt spread far and near, and had enlisted
the popular feelings in favor of the noble and persecuted David.
It was sheep-shearing time, and all Nabal's flocks were gathered
together ; while feasting and merry-making diversified the plea
sant labor in the household, and displayed the plenteousness
of Nabal's stores. Feeling his safety still less secure since the
recent death of Samuel, David, with his men, had retreated into
the wilderness of Paran, in the vicinity of Carmel, where Nabal's
flocks were fed. Scorning to appropriate to himself the smallest
portion of the wealth of another, however sorely pressed by
hunger and privation, David waited till the sheep-shearing, a
time when most men's hearts were open towards their poorer
brethren, and sent messengers to Nabal, bidding them greet him
in his (David's) name, and with a winning courtesy which spoke
well for the gentle and lowly character of the Lord's anointed,
ask the food and drink he so imperatively needed. " Peace be
both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace unto
all that thou hast. And now I have heard that thou hast
shearers : now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them
not, neither was there aught missing unto them, all the while
they were in Carmel. Ask thy young men, and they will show
thee. Wherefore let the young men find favor in thine eyes : for
we come in a good day : give, I pray thee, whatsoever c >metb
to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David."
13

E4 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Could any address have been more gentle and respectful, 01
more calculated to have found an equally conciliating reply I
Instead of which, we find Nabai, true to his churlish character,
peremptorily refusing, and scornfully demanding, " Who is
Oavid ? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants
nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall
I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh, that I have
killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not
whence they be ?"

He might easily have known, by an inquiry of his own young
men, to whom David, as a warrant of his truth, had so unhesi
tatingly referred him ; but to do so would have inferred a soften
ing spirit ; and their information, perhaps, might have compelled
him to comply with David's request : therefore he listened only
to the dictates of his own ill-temper, caring not for the con
sequences, or indeed thinking of anything but the peculiar
pleasure it was to be disobliging and ungrateful ; for from the
after-words of David, it would seem that he had not only
restrained his needy followers from taking any part of Nabal's
property, but absolutely protected them from the bands of
marauders which, from the fearful state of the kingdom, prowled
about Judea.

The indignation of the young warrior was roused by this surly
refusal, perhaps to somewhat too great an extent ; but David,
though so truly holy and pious, and perfect in his heart towards
God, as to be spiritually favored by Him above all his fellows,
is never portrayed in Holy Writ as anything but a mortal, with
all the infirmities and feelings of humanity. He was roused not
only by this ill return for his courtesy, but by the requital of
evil for good ; and in a moment of anger, he commanded all his
young men to gird on their swords, and with a troop of four
hundred equally indignant as himself, marched from the wilder
ness in the direction of Nabal's dwelling, resolved utterly to
exterminate all that belonged to him ; and no doubt he would
have done so, had not his wrath been turned aside, and his better
spirit recalled, by the energy and judgment of a beautiful and
noble-minded woman.

The high opinion which the superior understanding and
unwavering temper of Abigail had won her in the minds and
hearts of her household, is clearly evident from all which fol
lowed her husband's speech. One of the young men to whom

PERIOD IV. --ABIGAIL. 25

David had referred as witnesses of his truth, hastened to his
mistress, and informed her of all that had occurred. " Behold,
David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our
master ; and he railed on them [a forcible description, in a few
words, of the request and the reply]. But the men were very
good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any-
thing, as long as we were conversant with them in the fields :
they were a wall unto us both by night and by day, all the
while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore
know and consider what thou wilt do ; for evil is determined
against our master, and against all his household : for he is suca
a man of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him."

From these words, we are led to suppose that the youno- man
who spoke had seen enough of David, when in the wilderness
together, to feel well assured that such ungraciousness would be
severely punished. To attempt to speak to his master he
knew was impossible, for his words would either have been
wholly disregarded, or not even allowed to be spoken. We
see,_too, that he was ready and willing to bear witness to
David's truth, but his master was such a man of Belial, that he
dared not speak to him ; yet he was too faithful to allow such a
danger to fall upon his churlish master unawares, and so sought
his mistress, whose gentleness and wisdom were in all pro
bability the real source of his fidelity, and of that of all his
companions.

Abigail lost no time in either lamentations on their hoverino-
danger, or in aspersions on her churlish husbanu. Her active
and energetic character is clearly displayed in the promptness
and judgment of her proceedings. She asked no advice
manded no assistance, requiring only the willing help of her
domestics, and acting on the impulse of the moment as judi
ciously and quietly, as if she had months to think and to pre
pare. No woman could have done this, unless her understan diner
was ever in exercise, her mind well trained, and her principle's
so regulated as ever to guide her impulses aright. It is only
when the mind and principles are unregulated that impulses
are dangerous, and peculiarly liable to mislead. The habit of
thinking when life is smooth, prepares us for acting promptly
on an emergency ; and the impulse that we follow sprint
Hcarcely so much from the feelings of the moment, as from the

26 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

habit of steady thought to which we have lo«g subjected oui
minds before.

Such must have been the character and habits of the wife of
Kabal, for we read that she " made haste, and took two
hundred loaves, two bottles of wine, five sheep ready dressed,
five measures of parched corn, an hundred clusters of raisins,
and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. And
she said to her servants, go on before me ; and behold, I come
after you. But she told not her husband Nabal." She knew
;t was useless so to do, for she might not hope for his permission,
and all depended on speed and decision. His safety, her own,
and that of her whole household, was at stake. It was no
time for deference to one who would oppose, for the very sake
of opposition, even if his life were the sacrifice of his foolishness •
and so mounting her ass, she speedily followed her servants.
She could not have gone very far, when David and his armed
men, in alarming fulfilment of her servant's fears, " came down
against her, and she met them." Dismounting from her ass,
she hastened to pay him the reverential homage due to him,
alike as the anointed of the Lord and the destined king
of Israel ; and kneeling at his feet, addressed him in a strain so
fraught with the spirit of wisdom and piety, so truly defe
rential, without one spark of cringing servility, rising, as she
proceeded, almost into prophecy, that we can but wonder and
admire.

" Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be," she
answered, wisely seeking to turn David's anger on herself, that
by her speedy submission it might be averted ; " yet let thine
handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine ears, and hear the words
of thine handmaid. Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this
man of Belial, even Nabal : for as his name is, so is he ; Nabal
is his name, and folly is with him : but I thine handmaid saw
not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst scud. Now
therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth,
Beeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed
blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let
thine enemies, and those that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.
And now this blessing (or gift) which thine handmaid hatn
brought unto my lord, let it be even given unto the young men
ihat follow my lord. I pray thee forgive the trespass of thine

PERIOD IV. ABIGAIL. 21

handmaid ; for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure bouse ,
because my lord figliteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath
not been found in thee all thy days. Yet a man is risen to
pursue thee, and to seek thy soul : but the soul of my lord shall
be bound up in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God ; and
the souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out as from the
middle of a sling. And it shall come to pass, when the LORD
shall have done to my lord according to all the good that He
hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee
ruler over Israel ; that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor
offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood
causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself; but when the
LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine
handmaid."

In not one word of this beautiful address do we find Abigail
forgetting her own dignity, by that fulsome adulation with
which a mind of a less elevated grade would have sought to
disarm David's wrath. She does not say one word which
grates upon the mind as flattery. All of greatness, of victory,
of life which was to befall David, she attributes to the one only
source, the ordainment and the blessing of the Lord ; and that
victory only obtained, because it was not his own, but the
LORD'S battles which he fought. She speaks of his becoming
king of Israel, of the Eternal accomplishing all that He had
spoken concerning David as things assured, although at the very
time she spoke, David was a persecuted exile, with not a place
but the wild desert in which to lay his head ; and all those who
loved or showed him kindness, exposed to wrath and even mas
sacre at the hand of Saul. What but faith, the unquestioning
faith springing from the piety of the heart towards God, and the
intimate knowledge of His ways, could have dictated these
words ? and could Abigail have attained these things, if in any
part of the Mosaic law she was denied the privilege of praying
to the Lord, and studying His words ? No. If woman wero
refused the spiritual privileges granted to her brother man in
the law of God, there would be no such character as Abigail.

Not only does she, with prudence and ready, wit, deprecate the
anger of David by taking the trespass against him on herself,
and asking his forgiveness as if she it was who had offended, but
she contrives to lessen the offence of Nabal by attributing it not
tomafice or determined enmity, but only to folly, which prevented

28 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL,

his being answerable for his own actions, and therefore not worthy
• of David's further regard.

There is something singularly noble in Abigail thus taking en
herself the trespass, and so voluntarily offering herself to bear
its penalty. It was woman in her noblest and purest character.
The temper and other evil habits of Nabal must not only have
prevented all affection towards him, but repeatedly exposed hei
to those petty yet incurable sufferings springing from the surli
ness and moroseness of a churlish husband ; yet of these things
she thinks nothing, only remembering that, as her husband,
Nabal demanded every exertion and even sacrifice on her part,
and these without a moment's hesitation she makes.

Had not her appeal struck David, even as it strikes as, it
would not have so turned aside his purpose. Unselfishness and
piety, uprightness and honor, he himself so richly possessed, that
to such in another his heart was literally compelled to respond,
and wrath banished before them. " Blessed be the Lord God
of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me," he exclaims, with
that true unquestioning piety which never knows chance, but
attributes every event of daily life to the loving guidance of the
Most High God ; " and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be
thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood,
and from avenging myself with mine own hand. For in very
deed, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back
from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet
me, surely by the morning light there had not been one left to
Nabal."

How must the noble heart of Abigail have rejoiced within hei,
that her energy of purpose and promptness of act had, under the
blessing of God, been permitted to save so many innocent lives,
and also checked David in the commission of a great sin ! The
whole of this scene is so vividly described in Holy Writ, that it
is rather remarkable that it should never have been taken as the
subject of a picture, by some of the many illustrators of Scrip
ture. A rocky defile of Carmel winding round the side of a hill,
down which the four hundred armed followers of David in their
glittering armor might be scattered in and out the rocks,
except the few which, close beside their leader and the kneeling
Abigail, marked the foreground. The servants and led asses of
the wife of Nabal gracefully grouped on the opposite side of the
»rrned men, forming a beautiful contrast, by their peaceful habi

PERIOD IV. ABIGAIL. 29

foments and alarmed looks, to the fierce and eager countenances
of the warriors. The extreme beauty of Abigail, the pleading
look and posture of the suppliant, blending with the modest dig
nity of the woman ; the superb countenance and form of the
still youthful David, varying from indignation to softening admi
ration, all might form a combination not unworthy of first-rate
talent in an artist, more especially when that artist may be found
at this very day amid the ranks of Israel.

Courteously and kindly David accepted the proffered gifts of
Abigail, bidding her " go up in peace to her house, for he had
hearkened to her voice and accepted her person." Meaning
that he had accepted her as the person who had committed the
trespass, and so forgiven it. She need be under no further alarm
on account of her husband.

Her business thus blessedly accomplished, Abigail loitered not
on her way, and without further parley returned to her house,
evidently not having been missed by her husband ; who, while
death was hovering over his head, was holding a great feast in
his house like the feast of a king. " And his heart was merry
within him," in all the imbecile and sinful mirth of drunkenness.
What a contrast to the dignified and exalted character of
Abigail ! How inexpressibly trying to her mind must have
been the degraded brutish habits of such a husband ! How
strong must have been her innate dignity, her self-possession and
enduring temper, to have so acquired and preserved the respect
and faithfulness of her household, whom the example of their
master might have rendered rude and sottish as himself, and
who, were woman lowered in Israel, could have had no restraint
whatever.

Wisely, thougL no doubt with a sorrowful heart, she left
Nabal undisturbed in his inebriety till the morning's light,
although the news of the danger which he had so narrowly
escaped would effectually have roused him from his idle mirth.
When told, its effect seems extraordinary, " his heart died with
in him, and be became as stone ;" only explained by the suppo
sition of his utter want of manliness and trust, which prevented
all belief in David's assurances, and occasioned such vivid horroi
of his vengeance as literally to cause the death he dreaded ; for
" ten days after, the Lord smote Nabal that he died." All
awful chastisement for his churlish insult to the young warrior
known throughout all Israel as the Anointed of the Eternal. II«

iH) THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

had grudged the smallest particle of his immense stores to on<i
who, with such winning courtesy, had asked it at his hand ; and
the Eternal's justice, by one stroke, deprived him of them all,
and compelled him, naked and bare, to appear before His awful
throne in judgment for his crimes. And those crimes came not
under the denomination of great delinquencies ; they were those
petty sins of stingy selfishness and an aggravating disobliging
temper, which (how often !) grow upon us unconsciously ; and
we scarcely know their influence till some awful stroke of judg
ment awakens us to what we might have been, and to what we are.
His wife's narrative was this awakening stroke to Nabal. He
had sunk too low, too enervatingly, in the fathomless abyss of
selfish indulgence to rouse himself to a better course of life, so
that deadly fear of vengeance took possession of him, and com
bined with a torturing recollection of an abused and wasted
existence, rendered him as feelingless and senseless as the stone
to which he is compared.

How completely the appeal of Abigail had awakened David
to the sin which his immoderate anger prompted him to com
mit, we read by his pious and thankful exclamation, when he
heard of Nabal's death, "Blessed be the Lord that hath
pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and
hath kept His servant from evil, for the Lord hath returned the
wickedness of Nabal on his own head ;" words not only illus
trative of his rejoicing thankfulness of his own restraint from
sin, but also of his firm belief that all the changes of the heart
are of God not man, and that would we keep ourselves from
evil we must pray to Him to do so ; not imagine we can keep
pure, only by efforts of our own.

It was now David's turn to plead, and to her who had so
lately knelt to him as a supplicant. When the usual term of
mourning for a husband was over, " he sent and communed
with Abigail to become his wife." Her answer is strikingly
illustrative of that beautiful humility of character which is so
perfectly compatible with true dignity and modest self-esteem,
" Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant, to wash the feet of
the servants of my lord." When she was in the character of a
petitioner, we find no such expressions; for in entreaty they
would have been servile and degrading ; but as the petitioned,
tb<jy did but express the deep sense she entertained of her own
individual unworthiness, as little suiting her to be the wife of

PERIOD IV. ABIGAIL. 31

one whom the Lord God of Israel had so singled out above his
fellows. In worldly state and earthly possessions, David could
not compare with her former husband. Destined to the king
dom he was indeed ; but as we have previously stated, there was
no human semblance that such he would be, or any apparent
end to the troubles, the privations, the wanderings to which he
was still so mercilessly exposed. Yet he was the beloved, the
chosen of the LORD ; and in comparison with the holiness — the
virtue which must have originally gained him these appellations
in the hearts of his countrymen — Abigail might well have
deemed herself unworthy. She became his wife, however , and
though in doing so, she exchanged the wealth, the security, the
luxuries of such an establishment as had been Nabal's, for an
anxious and wandering life, continually exposed to danger from
the enmity of Saul and his followers, and to captivity from the
neighboring nations ; yet still the love and sympathy of such a
mind as David's, the rest from the wearying annoyances of a dis
eased temper, the indulgence of pious emotions and obedience
to all the observances of religion without the sneering scorn of a
churlish and uncongenial disposition, must indeed have marked
the exchange as a blessed one, and rendered her after life as
happy as it had previously been sad.

We have one more mention of Abigail, and in the very situa
tion of suffering and peril to which, as we have said, she
was, as the wife of David, continually exposed. About two
years after his marriage, David took refuge in the kingdom of
Gath, and besought "and obtained from Achish, their king, the
town of Ziklag, which, though situated in the territory of
Simeon, had till then belonged to the Philistines. In that city,
David and his companions, with their wives and children, com
posed a faithful little Hebrew colony, and the town formed a
quiet residence for the females and children while their hus
bands were engaged in war. On the many valiant acts of
David we must not linger. Two years after he had received
the gift of Ziklag, the Philistines gathered together all their
armies in Aphek, and the Israelites pitched by a fountain in
Jezreel. David and his men were with the rere-ward of the
army of Achish ; but, distrusted by the princes and lords of the
Philistines, because of their being Israelites, they were dis
banded from the army ; and in consequence returned to Ziklag.
Only three days had claused since they had left it ; but what a

32 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

change awaited their return ! The city was a heap of smoking
ruins, and their wives and their sons and their daughters, all
had been carried off; the Amalekites had made an invasion in
the south, and without tarrying to slay, had marked their path
with fire, and carried off every woman and child. Few lengthy
descriptions of grief have the force and beauty of the Scriptural
relation, " Then David and the people that were with him
lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power
to weep" And David himself had not only to mourn the loss
of his two wives, but was " greatly distressed, for the peoplo
Bpake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was
grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters." Stoning
him, the Lord's anointed ! How fearfully must grief have dis
ordered the minds and hearts of his followers ; and how pan
ful the position of David. To feel distress was no weakness in
Israel. Human nature is never described in the Bible as other
than deeply susceptible of all human and gentle emotions.
Religion in Israel was never intended to render the heart
insensible to the sweet charities of life and all their subsequent
afflictions. It was no sin to weep — no weakness to feel dis
tressed — but as " David encouraged himself in the Lord his
God," so too must we, when the deep waters of affliction flow
over us ; and like him we shall receive the guidance and
encouragement we need. But even in this emergency, when
every human feeling must have been striving within him, urging
instant action, we find him in meekness and humility inquiring
of the Lord. And to him God vouchsafed reply, and bade him
pursue, " for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail
recover all."

To enter into the detail of this chivalrous expedition we have
not space, as it relates more to David than to his wife, whose
history we are recording. Our readers will find the whole far
more emphatically told than could be by an uninspired pen, in
the xxxth chapter of the First Book of Samuel. Suffice it here
to state, " that David recovered all that the Amalekites had
carried away ; and he rescued his two wives, and there was
nothing lacking to him, neither small nor great, neither sons
nor daughters, nor anything that they had taken to them;
David recovered all."

The whole of this stirring tale reminds us of those narratives
»f the middle ages, on which the youthful lovers of chivalry

PERIOD IV. ABIGAIL 83

delight to linger; why should they not then feel equal pleasure
m the inspired story of their immediate ancestors ? We have
quite enough of Abigail's character and sentiments revealed, to
give us all sufficient for a just conception of what not only her
feelings but her conduct must have been, when she saw the
city of her husband burnt and sacked, and herself and all her
female companions, with their helpless children, carried off by
their lawless foes — exposed to every horror which the mind
could frame or the heart could dread. The wild attack ; the
hurried flight ; the agony of those days of capture which could
have no hopeful future, for David and his men were with
Achish, and the time of their return to Ziklag so uncertain, that
traces of the Amalekite spoilers might be lost ere their capture
was ever known ; and then the wild rekindling of hope at the
sudden descent of David and his men ; the awful strife lasting
from even unto even ; the glorious conquest ; and the reunion
of husbands and wives, children and fathers ; are so completely
all the elements of romance, that we need little of imagination
to give it life and breath, or turn to the records of fiction for
events to stir the very heart's blood with the recital of chivalric
deeds.

But not to record it merely in its romantic bearings, have wo
brought this portion of Scripture forward. It is to remark how
truly and beautifully both the grief and the exertions of David
and his men demonstrate the extent of love, conjugal and
parental, which reigned in the Hebrew households. It is a
beautiful illustration of the spirit of those Mosaic laws, which,
penetrating the very homes of the first-born of the Lord, guided
and sanctified the conduct of husbands and wives, children and
parents. Love was the watchword of Israel, alike in their
relations to their Father in heaven, and to each other. That
the law was severe in its justice, is no contradiction to this asser
tion. Its perfection of justice was far purer, deeper, more
influencing Love, than the modern codes which are pronounced
ao much more merciful.

The social and domestic position of the wife of Nabal must
have been as perfectly free, independent, and influencing, as that
of any woman of the present day, be the laws which guide her
what they may. We perceive the counsel and wisdom of their
mistress, sought and followed by the servants of Nabal without
the smallest regard to their master. Compare this liberty of

54 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

will and action, this exercise of judgment displayed in th<j
history of Abigail, with the position and the characters of the
Eastern females of the present day, under the laws of Mahomet,
and then let truth pronounce which are the degraded ? Again,
we are expressly told, that Abigail was not merely a beautiful
woman, but of good understanding, which her whole story
proves; and yet more, every word of her address to David
evinces an almost remarkable knowledge of the ways and the
words of the Lord. She is even called by the Ancient Fathers
a prophetess. " There were seven women of Israel," they say,
" who were prophetesses — Sarah, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah,
Abigail, Huldah, and Esther." We know not on what authority
our venerable sages have honored by the term prophetess, those
whom the Bible does not so distinguish ; but it is a forcible
proof of the deep learning arid profound knowledge of the Word
of God which must have been possessed by Abigail, and which
she could not have acquired without study. The study of reli
gion, then, was evidently not prohibited to the women of Israel ;
p.nd therefore we know not by what authority such blessed study
can be denied to us now.

Nor is it only religious knowledge which Abigail's character
developes. It is a perfect acquaintance with human nature, else
she had not so soon turned aside the wrath of David. Judg
ment, intellect, and talent all breathe in her eloquent appeal,
and evince an elevation of intelligence impossible to be obtained
were the social position of woman confined to household work.
The more we study the story of Abigail, the more deeply we
must feel how valuable it is to us as women of Israel ; how
impressively it marks out our privileges in every relation of life,
and how unanswerably it proves that Jewish women need
no other creed to give them either spiritual or temporal
advantages.

As women, the character of Abigail equally concerns us. Wo
have frequently insisted that the narratives, as well as the pre
cepts, of the Bible are written for our guidance ; and therefore
are we so anxious to bring forward all that can aid our young
sisters in making their Bibles their daily guide. Many would
do so, but they know not how, from the sad scarcity of religious
books amongst us, in modern tongues. The more we daily
*tudy the Bible, the more easy in truth shall we find it ; but
then we must not confine our readings to the five books of

PERIOD IV. ABIGAIL. 35

Moses. One chapter every morning, one every night, and three
on the Sabbath, complete the whole Bible— Pentateuch, Hagio-
graphy, and Prophets — all, with the sole exception _ of the
Psalms, in the three hundred and sixty-five days forming the
Nazarene year ; and this formed into a habit, not done one yeai
and laid aside, but persevered in for a life, would, in process of
time, and without either labor or weariness, give the comfort
and the knowledge that we seek. Nor need we fear that we
shall grow weary of the task; each year it would become
lighter and more blessed, each year we should discover some
thing we knew not before, and in the valley of the shadow of
death feel, to our heart's core, that the word of our God is in
truth "the -rod and the staff, they comfort me," of which the
Monarch-Psalmist spake.

Wo have already noticed the little power which Nabal's
churlish temper, and all the discomforts thence ensuing, had
• over the pious and energetic character of Abigail. From her
wise forbearance towards him, both in acting without his know
ledge in seeking David, and in not mentioning the effect of that
interview till he was in a state to hear it, we can quite infer,
that she not only bore with a churlish temper, but well knew
how to manage it — a task not a little difficult, and which none
but an unselfish and well controlled temper ever can attempt.
Many women, instead of acting on such an emergency, would
have lost all the proper time of action in vain lamentations, and
in bi/ter reproaches of the churlish folly which had caused it ;
or, if they acted as Abigail did, many would have displayed
triumph, would have vaunted of their own skill in turning wrath
aside, and taunted Nabal with what might have befallen him.
But Abigail, with true womanly dignity, did neither. That she
had been permitted to save her household from an imminent
danger was enough for her — and if the kind providence of the
Eternal had not ordained it otherwise, she would have returned
to all her usual quiet duties and silent endurance, never dream
ing that her conduct had evinced anything worthy of reward.

Let us then, as woman, not only admire, but imitate the
piety, the forbearance, and the energy of our gentle ancestress,
assured that such virtues are acceptable to our God. Many
and many a one have a Nabal in their households in one of
other relation of life. Temper, thought of so little, encouraged
because it is no palpable vice, so blinding the eyes of ite pos-

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

sessor as to fling its black shadow on all his associates, till the$
are thought the churlish, not himself ; temper, the severer of
so many gentle ties, the rude breaker of so many loving hearts,
the baleful spirit of so many otherwise richly favored homes,—
oh, what but a character, a piety, an energy like Abigail's can
enable us to sustain its trials, in a manner acceptable to the
Lord, and not overwhelming to ourselves! As women, as
women of Israel more especially, let us endeavor to cultivate
these noble qualities, and feel that even for the sufferings of a
churlish temper, we have sympathy, comfort, and guidance in
the Bible. We may not all have either the beauty or the
good understanding of Abigail ; but we may all have piety and
energy and influence if we so will, the one springs from the
other; for the want of energy, the absence of all influence,
arises from a listless indifference which never can exist with
true piety. The service of God demands constant watchfulness,
constant activity, aye, and constant thought ; nor can we serve
Him, apart from serving our fellow-creatures. To bear and
forbear is peculiarly woman's duty — in every station of life, and
more especially towards a husband; and every religious and
justly feeling woman will rouse her every energy to conceal, or
at least prevent, the evil consequences of temper and ill judg
ment spreading over her household, and lowering the character
of a husband in the minds of his inferiors. Abigail's constant
superiority of judgment and action we learn by her servants
going to her without hesitation. They must have frequently
confided in her judgment before, else they could not have
demonstrated such implicit trust in a moment of danger.

Her influence we as clearly perceive in the success of her
appeal to David ; a quick judgment and few well chosen words
saved herself and household from destruction, and David from
the committal of a great sin. And if by the cultivation of mind
and manner woman can achieve such things, who shall deny
her the privilege of being an instrument of good, or seek to
confine her to a false and degraded position, and so compel
either vacuity and idleness, or frivolity and folly ? We may
not be called upon to exert our influence in a matter of life o/
death, but few are the women who pass through this life with
out some opportunity to use their natural influence for good,
either in the encouragement of worth, or the wise and gentle
guidance from the paths of sin. If there are some who wil'

PERIOD IV. WOMAN OF TKKOAII. 37

deny this, who will assert that in their isolated position they
have influence on none, and have no power to do good, we
would say, it is because they seek it not, not because they have it
not ; and beseech them to rouse their dormant energy to find
and use it, and by the superiority of their mental resources,
their spiritual piety, their noble energy, and pure meek womanly
influence, alike in their domestic and social position, make mani
fest to the nations how deeply they feel and glory in the
privileges accorded to, and in the duties demanded from them,
as the female children of the Lord.

CHAPTER III.

WOMAN OF TEKOAH. - W OMAN OF ABEL.
- RIZPAH. - JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON. -
WIDOW OF ONE OF TUB SONS OF THE
PROPHETS.

THE period of our history which we are now regarding, will
not supply us with such regular biographies as the preceding
ones. Between Abigail and the Shunammite, in the time of
Elisha, there is no female character which we can look upon as
a whole, and derive thence individual benefit ; but in the years
of the monarchy stretching between the two above-mentioned,
there are some notices of women peculiarly valuable to us in a
national sense, as portraying our position, both social and
intellectual.

The first of these is the wise woman of Tekoah, suborned by
Joab to incline the king's heart towards Absalom. In what
sense the epithet " a wise woman" was regarded, we cannot exactly
determine ; but from Joab sending at once to Tekoah, we are
led to suppose her a person noted for her wisdom, and selected
for that reason. Her story is, of course, a feigned one, and
therefore does not command our commiseration ; but it ia
raluable, as it so undeniably maniests how easy it was for the

8 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

women of Israel to obtain the ear of the monarch, and receive
justice and protection at his hand, even against the opinions of
the people. She tells David that she is a widow who had two
sons, one of whom, in striving with the other, had smitten and
slain him. That the whole family had risen against the widow
commanding her to deliver up the survivor, that they might
revenge his brother's death by also slaying him ; and so, in the
beautiful language of Scripture, " quench my coal which is left,
and not leave my husband neither name nor remainder upon the
earth." David, in answer, desires her to return to her home in
peace ; that he would give chaige concerning her. Still she
lingers, and he reiterates, " Whosoever saith aught unto thee,
bring him unto me, and he shall not touch thee any more.
Then said she, I pray thee. let the king remember the Lord thy
God, that thou wouldst not suffer the revengers of blood to
destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As
the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the
ground."

By this we are led to believe, that the supposed crime of the
one brother against the other came under the accidental mur
ders, where the slayer was permitted to seek the cities of
refuge. It is, as we know, a fictitious tale of grief; still it is
important to mark how exactly it tallies with obedience to the
laws. The woman asserts herself to be a widow*, and conse
quently the peculiar care of her brethren. Her position is
sanctified, and therefore is it that David not only hears her. and
promises that he will take her in charge, but pledges himself to
yet greater leniency than the law allows. In his own case, one
exactly similar, David had done such violence to his own
parental feelings, that three years had elapsed since he had
looked on his darling Absalom, towards whom we are expressly
told his soul longed to go forth. The laws of his country might
not be transgressed for him, though a sovereign ; and yet for a
mourning widow his kind heart yielded. This does not evince
disregard to woman's feelings, or that they were less objects of
care in the state than man, but rather the complete contrary ;
the king's son was to remain in exile and ignominy, the widow's
son was to be protected and pardoned.

Not content with the farjr granted the supposed widow, she
proceeds to entreat the king. " Let thine handmaid speak, I
gray thee, one word unto my lord the king. And the king said,

PERIOD IV. WOMAN OPTEKOAH. 38

' Say on." And then boldly and unhesitatingly the suppliant
turns reprover; and, making her own case the king's, pro
nounces it a faulty judgment, else why does he not fetch home
his banished ? We need not transcribe the whole of her well
judged appeal (see 2 Sam. xiv.). The king's penetration at
once discovered the reil moviv of this scene, and addressing the
woman as his equal, instead of demanding the truth from her as
some might imagine due to his roya] prerogative, he asks,
Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing thatl shall ask thee.
And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak. And
the king said, Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this ?"
The whole was consequently revealed; but no anger at the
3ception followed. The king's word had passed, and though it
was to a supposed case, he would not withdraw it. The
young man Absalom was recalled from his grandfather's court
and brought by Joab to Jerusalem ; but still true to his pater
nal severity, David would not listen to his feelings ; and for two
years, though dwelling in the same town, the father and son
never saw each other's face ; whereas, had the widow's story
been true, he would have permitted her the rich blessino- Of her
son's continued presence and full pardon.

The incident is not an important one in itself; but by Joab's
seeking a woman to bring the king to his wishes ; by the little
difficulty she had to obtain a hearing; by the kindness and
aelmg which dictated the monarch's manner and words towards
her we cannot entertain a doubt of the real position of women
in Judea;— that she was thought of, felt for, and protected infi
nitely more in the state of Israel, than in any contemporary or
even in any more modern nation ; that even warriors and courtiers
disdained not to ask and use her aid ; and that the kino- himself
listened, not only when she was a supplicant on her own affairs,
but when the strain was changed, and she ventured to address
him on his own.

Nor is she the only "wise woman" whose instrumentality is
mentioned in Holy Writ. Soon after the death of Absalom

, - j • t"c ueuLu 01 xiusaiom

other confusions arose ; and a quarrel took place between the
men of Israel and the tribe of Judah, as to who should have the
greater influence over the aged king, "and the words of the

sn ot Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel ;"
in consequence of which, a man of Belial (the scriptural term
for a seditious and rebellious spirit) named Sheba, a Benjanrte,

10 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

olew a trumpet, and proclaimed, " We have no part in Davit],
neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse ; every man tc
his tents, O Israel" — the usual war cry of the Jews. " So every
man of Israel went up from David, and followed Sheba, the son
of Bichri : but the men of Judah clave unto their king." A
war of course ensued, seeming likely to be yet more injurious to
Judea than even Absalom's rebellion. And Joab with a large
army " went from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba." His appear
ance and proclamation, " He that is for David let him. go after
Joab," recalled the wavering Israelites, and Sheba was com
pelled to take refuge in the city of Abel of Beth-maachah.
There Joab besieged him, casting up a bank against the city,
and rearing battering engines against the wall, so that destruc
tion and slaughter were inevitable ; for no possibility or
inclination for resistance appeared from within. Not one man
had the necessary courage and wisdom to come forward, either
to pacify Joab or to meet him in battle. A hesitation no doubt
occasioned by the fear of Sheba, the natural reluctance to the
delivering up of one who had taken refuge in their city, and the
yet greater reluctance to rise against David. Between these
conflicting emotions the downfall of the city was inevitable ; but
there was one within its walls, not only a wise, but a patriotic
woman, who, boldly taking on herself all risk of personal
danger, alike from the battering rams of Joab without and the
rage of Sheba's adherents within, suddenly appeared upon the
walls and called aloud, " Hear, hear ; say, I pray thee, unto
Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee."

The noise of attack on the part of the besiegers involuntarily
ceased, and soldiers and general must have gazed with some
astonishment on the vision appearing thus boldly before them.
And Joab approaching, she bade him " hear the words of thine
handmaid. And he said, I do hear. Then she spake, saying,
They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They shall surely
ask counsel at Abel, and so they ended the matter ;" rather
obscure words, yet, as appears to us from the succeeding verse,
meaning that, in former years, the councils held by the inhabit
ants of Abel ended all difficult matters ; but that Joab coming
upon them in determined hostility had prevented any amicable
treaty, and had in consequence checked the interference of all
luch who, like herself, were " peaceable and faithful in Israel."

The address also appears to allude to, and in fact lo illustrate,

PERIOD IV. WOMAN OF ABEL. 41

kl<e law contained in Deut. xx. 10 — 12. " When tLou comest
nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto
thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein
shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. " And ii
it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee,
then thou shalt besiege it." Joab's impetuous zeal seems to
have neglected this merciful ordinance, and therefore no council
as in ancient times could be held in Abel, and no decision made,
either for peace or war. And this was the more blamable or
the part of Joab, because the city belonged to David ; die inha
bitants were his own subjects. The speaker feels this in her
concluding words, "Thou seekest to destroy a city and mother
in Israel : why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the
Lord."

All she says is so essentially feminine, so moderate anj gentle,
that it at once satisfies us that her boldness and wisdom in no
way mark her a masculine character. She was still a mother
in Israel ; her endowments were evidently common to her sex and
country, proving that they knew well how to unite the wisdom of
the patriot with all the graces of the woman. Her very first words
to Joab, " Hear the words of thine handmaid," mark her perfect
consciousness of her own position, and pay that respect due alike
to the rank and generalship of the person she addressed. An
assumption of wisdom and consequently of authority, would
have lost her the ear of Joab at once. A man may be influenced
by woman, but not dictated to, however superior may be her
wisdom. We cannot discover the wisdom of this mother in
Israel in her actual words, so much as in her actions. The
address was indeed well chosen, for it appealed directly to the
best and holiest feelings of Joab, and could only have proceeded
from a mind long accustomed to well regulated thought ; but her
sole plea was, that she was a " mother in Israel," a character and
station to which the rudest and hardest natures never refused
reverence.

' Far be it, for be it from me," was Joab's earnest answer, " to
swallow up or destroy — the matter is not so, but a man of mount
Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, hath lifted up his
hand against the king, even against David. Deliver him only,
tnd I will depart from the city. And the woman said, Behold,
his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. Then the

±2 THE WOMEN OF / S R A E L .

woman went unto all the people in her wisdom ; and they cut
off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joab ;
and he blew a trumpet, and they retired from the city every man
to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem and to the kin^ w
(2 Sam. xx.)

There will be no doubt some fair affectors of refinement, hor
ror-stricken at the idea of a woman being influential in the
execution of a criminal, and condemn the age in which such
deeds were done, as something too barbarous to be regarded
without a shudder. Now, there are few of our countrywomen,
we think, more painfully affected by scenes and thoughts of
blood than ourself; but it is the necessity for such fearful "punish
ments we feel and mourn, more than the punishment itself. The
Eternal ordained capital punishments for capital crimes ; and if
llis infinite wisdom and His immeasurable mercy saw that it was
good so to do, surely we poor weak finite creatures of a day, can
have neither right nor wisdom to deem such acts of justice cruel,
or loathe them as remnants of barbarity. Joab's demand was
unanswerably just. The man whose seditious and rebellious
spirit sought to light the flame of discord all over Judea, and
dared to arm his countrymen against the Lord's Anointed, was
deserving of death ; and his own execution saved the lives of
hundreds.

Was it not then an act of far greater mercy to demand the
head of Sheba, than, by the weak shrinking from a duty so
painfully repugnant to woman's nature, expose men, women, and
children, in countless numbers, to the destroying sword ? Yet,
from the latter few would shrink as they do from the former,
only because there is something so dreadful in the idea of a
woman seeking the life of a fellow-creature. She sought, in fact,
to seive life, not to take it ; and her efforts were successful.
Enviable must have been that " wise woman's" feelings as the
trumpet sounded, and the fierce warriors under the command of
Joab struck their tents, withdrew their battering-rams, and in
goodly array marched away from the pre-doomed city ; leaving
freedom and rejoicing gladness behind them, in a people saved
alike from the destroying sword, and fix m the sin of strife and
rebellion against the Lord's Anointed !

Now, it is not at all likely that these wise counsels were the
impulse of the moment. The women of Israel must have had a
roice even in the senate of Zheir several cities. Their position

PERIOD IV. R I Z P A H „ 4?

must have been alike elevated and intellectual. In a state lika
Israel, composed as it was of so many unruly members and con
stantly seditious spirits, wisdom could no more have obtained
ascendency without cultivation then, than it can now. Had
there been any law confining woman to any particular sphere,
prohibiting her interference in any religious or secular matters,
wisdom and judgment would not only have been publicly use
less in a woman, but privately uncultivated, and we should find
no such instances as the two we have recorded. A little atten
tive thought on the condition of the beleaguered city, the multi
tude of diverse opinions with which at such a time it must have
been agitated, moved as it wTas by the presence and pleadings
of the arch-rebel himself, the fierce troops without, the noise of
the siege, and all its concomitant terrors ; and remember, that
out of these multitudes it was a woman who came forward, a
mother in Israel (how sacred is the term !) who in her wisdom
obtained not only the hearing of Joab, but, a more difficult
matter, of the warring people, and bent them like a reed, only
from the superiority of MIND, — must we not feel to our heart's core
the real position of the women of Israel in the PAST ? That she,
even as man, enjoyed not alone the spiritual, but the intellec
tual and refining privileges of being one of the chosen of God ;
and must we not long for that FUTURE, when we shall again be
blessed and influential in our own most holy land, doing the will
of God, and being in very truth spiritually and temporally helps
meet for His sons ? Oh, shall not the thought of the past, and
of the future, influence Israel's PRESENT, and waken her daugh
ters to their immortal heritage, in being of the first-born
children of the Lord ; who holdeth them so inexpressibly dear,
that the individual or nation who injureth them injureth the
apple of His eye ? Is not the thought that we are of a nation
so beloved, sufficient incentive for the cultivation of spirituality,
virtue, intellect, wisdom, affection, devotedness to God and man,
all that could make the days of this life even " as the days of
heaven on the earth ?"

The devotion of Rizpah is another exquisitely beautiful trait
of female character. Its mention does not contain a lesson, but
a picture. It does not tell us what woman should be, but what
she is, and is valuable as proving that the women of the Bible
are but portraits of woman's nature now. The stern mandate
of the Lord against the bloody house of Saul had not all beer

44 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

fulfilled ; and justice, that inscrutable justice which man dare not
hope to explain, demanded the execution of the last remaining
scions of the family of Saul. The narrative contained in the first
nine verses of 2 Sam. xxi., is one on which it is better not to
linger, lest it arouse doubts and questions verging on impiety.
Et is enough that it was the ordinance of the Eternal, and that
tie ever ternpereth justice with mercy ; and though to finite
minds, in this instance, mercy may seem hidden in blood, it ife
enough for us to know, that " God's ways are not our ways, nor
His thoughts our thoughts," and calmly resting on t'ais blessed
truth, dismiss the subject as one to be explained hereafter, when
the immortal likeness of God in which made He man, purified
from the corrupting clay, will be permitted to trace the secret of
His ways ; and all that in His word seemed dark and terrible,
bear witness to the perfect justice and the perfect mercy of Him,
with whom " is the fountain of life, and in whose light we shall
see light."

Day and night, from the beginning of the barley harvest, till
the rain came down from heaven, a period of many weeks, did
Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, keep solitary watch beside the
mouldering bodies of the last remnants of the house of Saul
" She took sackcloth and spread it for her upon the rock, and
Buffered neither the birds of the air to rest upon them by day,
nor the beasts of the field by night." What a volume of
woman's heart is told in that brief verse ! That devotedness to
the beloved dead which would guard the poor remnants of
mortality from all insult of bird or beast — that lingering beside
all which was spared her, alas, for that mournful "all!"
Scorched by the sun of day, and chilled by the dews of night,
yet move .1 she not from the stony rock, nor cared she for aught
besides. Mourning, yet not repining ; guarding the hallowed
dead, yet breathing not her anguish, save through the tears that
fell on the impenetrable rock, the sighs that mingled with the
breeze. Who might feel for her, sole remnant of that bloody
house? Who might lament those deaths which retribution
called ? None. And the mourner asked naught of man.
Her world was by the dead, and there the mocking sun and the
pitying moon gazed down upon her in her sad and solitary watch.
And oh, is not this woman ? — Is not this the love, the devoted-
ness, which are the natural dwellers of woman's heart, when
oniight but nature speaks? And not entirely unsympathized

PERIOD iv. — SOLOMON'S JUDGMENT. 4|

was her affliction. It reached the ear, and penetrated the heart,
of the feeling and affectionate king, and the bones of Saul and
Jonathan, and of them that were hanged, were gathered by
David's express command, and buried with due honors in the
sepulchre of Kish the father of Saul, which was in the country
of his tribe ; and thus that fearful ignominy, so revolting to an
Israelite, the denying burial to the dead, was removed from the
house of Saul by the devotion of a woman. \Vho, then, will
assert that the purest and best feelings of our nature find no
place in the Word of God ? Who can seek to make religion
trample on the most sacred feelings of humanity, by asserting
that, if we truly love the Lord, we can never grieve nor be
afflicted ? How painfully mistaken are those who wouM thus
instruct, and how sadly deceived those who would banish all
feeling from woman's nature ! Who would guide her by rule
and measure ? Who would check every enthusiastic impulse,
every kind sentiment, every sympathizing emotion, every
imaginative glow, all because it is so unfitted for this unroraantic
world ; and therefore destines its possessor to more pain than
pleasure ? Oh, if we believe the Word of the Lord divine, let
us come there, and we shall find guides fov feeling as well as for
action. There we find the emotions which God in His mercy
gave, encouraged, not subdued ; feeling, devotedness, affection,
enthusiasm, all that can lift us up from the mere petty concerns
and thoughts of a day, are there brought forward ; and why then
should the sweet emotions of the Israelite in the past, be
deemed folly and romance, and so unworthy of the Israelite in
the present ? Oh ! as women, women of Israel, let us cultivate
every emotion which can refine and elevate and prepare us for
that Future which has been so long our promised heritage!
We are but strangers and sojourners in the land of our
captivity ; but our destiny is laid up with our God for that dav
when, in the face of the whole world, we shall be acknowledged
as His own.

The next striking evidence of woman's social position in our
present Period, is found in the far-famed, often-quoted iud^-
nent of Solomon. The wisdom of the monarch's sentence is
the point generally insisted upon, to the exclusion of all the
other topics of interest which this remarkable incident presents.

Ihe term harlot, more than once applied to women in the
Bible, had a very different meaning to that in which it is alone

46 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

used now. It is generally supposed to signify, indiscriminately
an innkeeper or hostess, as in the case of Kahab, or women in
the servile classes, independent of servitude in households, but
occupying some trades in Jerusalem peculiar to themselves.
They had, in consequence, neither rank, wealth, nor any of the
usual accessories to the royal favor. Yet we find that the very
first persons who obtained access to Solomon, after the offerings
with which he sanctified his entrance into Jerusalem, were two
women of this class. It was not that there were no inferior
courts of justice in the Mosaic Law, no order or division of ranks
in the Jewish State. There were all these. Yet, if the women
of Israel demanded the judgment of their monarch himself, the
very lowest classes had access to him ; and their cases were
heard and judged. Certainly a very different mode of proceed
ing to the customs of other nations, either then or now.

Surrounded by his officers and court, in the magnificent array
which marked all the proceedings of King Solomon, the
monarch listened with patient and sympathizing attention tc
the tale of affliction boldly spoken before him. It was a sad
and a strange one, and seemingly so difficult for a just decision
on the part of the youthful judge, that interest was in no slight
degree excited. Two women dwelt in the same house, to each
of whom a child was born ; the one within three days of the
other. They were alone within the house, and the child of the
one woman died, and she arose at midnight and changed the
dead for the living ; and when her companion awoke in the
morning, to nurse her child, behold it was dead ; but when she
had looked on it attentively, it was not her child which she did
bear. And when the complainant narrated this tale, her
opponent denied that it was so, saying, '; Nay, but the living is
my son, and the dead is thy son ! And this said, No, but the
dead is thy son, and the living is my son ; and thus they spake
before the king." In a modern court of justice we think a
similar case would be found somewhat difficult to solve. Solo
mon made no pause ; repeating the charge and its denial, so
as to make it clear to all who heard, he continued, " Bring me
a sword," and when obeyed, pronounced that memorable
sentence which first revealed his godlike wisdom to his subjects :
— " Divide the living child in two, give half to the one, and
half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living
child was, unto the king, for her bowels yearned unto her aon r

PERIOD iv. — SOLOMON'S JUDGMENT. 47

Oh ! my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it ;
but the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide
it. And the king answered and said, Give her [the first
speaker] the living child, and in no wise slay it, she is the
mother thereof!" And if all Israel, when they heard of this
judgment, feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of
God was in him, how deeply, how gratefully, must the real
mother have rejoiced in the courage which brought her before
the monarch, and, through his sentence, received back her son !
Solomon's wisdom, in this instance, proceeded simply from a
profound knowledge of human nature. He tested the truth or
falsehood of the relation by an appeal to the heart, and decided
according to its unguarded witness, demanding nothing more
for his own satisfaction or that of his hearers. The incident is
a trifling one ; but it is valuable in demonstrating the social
position of the women of Israel at the period. We have already
seen that to obtain the monarch's ear was quite accessible to
woman, in the narration of David and the widow of Tekoah ;
but the present instance is, if possible, still more convincing,
from the fact of the women being of the lowest classes, and
having no friendly influence to bring them forward ; nothino- in
fact to plead in their favor, but their privileges as women of
Israel, which of course gave them admission to their earthly
sovereign, who was but the vice-regent of Him by whom all
Israel, men, women, and children, were heard, judged, and
answered : and when the law of the land permitted, nay, com
manded, impartial judgment on all who claimed it, women as
well as men, it surely cannot be accused of either degrading or
enslaving ; many an afflicted and oppressed one of the Gentile
lands might be found to wish it were in action still.

And how beautifully does this simple narrative display the
power of nature ! It was far easier to resign her babe than
see him die, even at the risk of her previous recital being disbe
lieved. She could feel nothing but the fatal comman<f of the
king to slay the child ; little could she think those agonized
words of entreaty were expressly called for by the king, for the
discovery of the truth ; and that the burst of natural feeling
would be the means of giving her back her child. How forcibly
does this little anecdote confirm our reiterated assertion, that the
Word of our God guides and portrays feeling as well as action,
»nd that all oui purest, best, and noblest affections will always
14

IS THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

find their reflection there. And this is one of the widest
distinctions between the Bible and Profane History. The
latter narrates events, actions, the palpable and striking parts
of man, if we may so express it, but touches not that immaterial
and subtle essence of thought and feeling, whence alone all that
is palpable and striking comes. The Bible in a few brief words
will give the key to actions, will simply portray a feeling, an
impulse which flashes on the heart, awakening, as by electricity,
the links of nature, which unite the present with the past in the
history of humanity ; and we know such record is divine, else
the darkly hidden, rarely penetrated, mysteries of the human
heart could not have been so forcibly revealed.

Nor are they the only illustrations of feeling. How touch-
ingly illustrative of that affection is Elisha's first address to
Elijah ! When the latter threw his mantle upon Aim, as sym
bolical of his elevation to the prophetical calling, a rush of
strange yet ecstatic feeling must have taken possession of him :
perhaps the aspirings of many years, the heart's hopes and
longings for such spiritual election, unknown to any but his own
heart, were gratified. It must have been some extraordinary
and incomprehensible impulse, actuating the resignation of all
early employments and associations, simply to follow Elijah —
feelings probably overwhelming in their suddenness ; yet we find
him in the midst of them thinking of his parents. " Let me, I
pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will
follow thee."

It is in truth only a feeling, not any momentous incident 01
striking illustration, which these simple words betray : but it is
often from little things like these, that we may form an estimate
of the social condition and feelings of a people. The Jewish
law, as we have seen, peculiarly and affectingly touches on the
conduct and even emotions of children for their parents, and
parents for their children. Elisha, we may feel sure, both from
his being the anointed prophet of the Lord, and from the
whole course of his after-life, had been brought up strictly as an
Israelite. He had, as is often the case, received an education
which, in the very midst of idolatry and misery, preserved him
undefiled and fitted to supply Elijah's place. His exclamation
atrongly proves how completely the affections were blended with
spiritual gifts ; while from his lingering yearning towards his
parents, we feel what they must have been to him — his mothet

PERIOD iv. — PROPHET'S WIDOW.

49

as well as his father. There is no such thing as filial reverence
and love in nations where woman is degraded In the Jewish
nation, on the contrary, we find repeated instances of both reve
rence and love— such could not fail to have been the case when
" honor thy father and thy mother" was one of the first com.
raands of God Himself.

We trace too, much of a mother's nurture and influence in
the pccuharly sweet and loving character of Elisha durino- his
prophetical career. His mission was almost all of love ; and the
feeling and sympathy which he manifested to all who souo-ht
him, ^specially towards women, as we shall see in more than
one instance, display a manly character formed by a woman's
hand.

One of _ the first miracles performed by Elisha was for a
woman, evincing the tender kindness of his disposition and
proving that woman was not considered unworthy to receive
relief, through him, from the hand of her gracious Gc<l She
was a poor widow, whose only claim to the compassion of the
prophet appeared to be, that he knew that her husband " thy
servant, did fear the Lord." But he died poor, and in debt
and, in exact illustration of the law, the creditor came to'
demand the service of his two sons, in lieu of the sum that was
owing,— a hard trial for the poor woman, left in her bereave-
ment with but two sons, from whom the justice of the law
compelled her to part, unless she could raise money sufficient
to discharge her debt; and so without fear she approached the
prophet, and stated her case. " What shall I do for thee !" was
the commiserating reply; "tell me what hast thou in thy
house. And what a picture of uncomplaining poverty does
her answer bring! "Thine handmaid hath nothino- in the
house but a pot of oil." The prophet felt for and relieved her •
but how much of childlike and trusting faith must she have
needed, in the obedience to his strange command,—" Borrow
thee vessels of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels, borrow
not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the
door upon thee, and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all
those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full"
Borrow vessels to fill with oil, when she had but one pot of oil
in the house ! How could this be ? Was not the prophet
playing with her distress ? How could such a strange command
avail hei ? Such questions would only have been natural ; but

50 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

we do not find that they entered her mind, or prompted dcmbt
and speculation. She might, perhaps, have heard of the widow
of Zarephath, whose cruse of oil had miraculously lasted during
the famine ; but more probably her instant obedience originated
in that simple guileless trust which should characterize every
feeling of our heart towards God. " So she went from him,
and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who had
brought the vessels to her, and poured out. And it came to
pass when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son,
Bring me yet another; and he said, There is not a vessel
more ; and the oil stayed. Then she came and to d the man of
God, and he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live,
thou and thy children, on the rest." It was not enough to give
her present relief — the merciful kindness of the man of God
provided also for the future, and gave her the blessed relief of
retaining her children beside her. Now if woman were of no
account in Israel, it would have been a greater kindness to take
her sons from her, than leave them tx her training. As a
widow in Israel, she herself would have been provided for;
there was no need for this great mercy to have been shown her :
nor in her retired, simple mode of living, could the performance
of the miracle for her have increased Elisha's prophetical repu
tation. She was a poor afflicted individual — of no more conse
quence amongst her countrymen, either in life or death, joy or
sorrow, than were we to remove one grain of sand from the sea
shore. Yet she was as much an object of pitying mercy in the
sight of her God and of His prophet, as the highest and most
important in the land. And what was her sole plea for hearing
and acceptance ? " Thou knowest my husband, thy servant, did
fear the Lord ;" — meaning not only the departed, but herself
and her whole household. There was no long list of high-
sounding deeds, of sublime projects, and seemingly important
services. The sons of the prophets, as they were called,
appeared to have passed their quiet lives in holy meditation on
the law and the works of God, and in serving Him by such
deeds of unostentatious kindness and social benevolence as very
often to die poor. They asked nothing but a bare sufficiency
of board and lodging blessed with family love. They were
never heard of out of their own retired sphere ; but they feared
the Lord, and taught their wives and children to do so likewise.
A.nd this was the poor widow's plea; aid it was accepted

PERIOD IV. THE SHUNAMMITE. 51

And shall we then say the women of Israel have no access to
God ? Do we need more than our own blessed faith and its
vivid illustrations in the Eternal's own word, to give us not only
consolation but encouragement ? Can we not all feel as tha't
poor widow did — a guileless faith, which asked no question,
but obeyed — which came at once to the man of God, and,
though his words were strange, yet trusted and was relieved ?

True, we have no man of God to whom to seek ; we may
not look to miracles for our relief ; but we may all con e to God's
word, and, through it, to God Himself. There is no barner
between us and Him. Our holy faith gives us the blessed con-
feolatiori of coming to Him direct, and of feeling that, if we. do but
seek to fear, and love, and serve Him, we shall be accepted arid
beloved. Lowliness of station, of intellect, of service, is of no
account with Him. The poor widow is an evidence that the
poorest and the humblest, the merest atom of His stupendous
creation, is not unworthy of His regard, aye, even to the perform
ance of a miracle in her behalf; and her sole plea was, she
" feared the Lord." Oh, let not the false idea of too great
unworthiness to approach Him, of incapacity to address Him in
words fit for His acceptance, obtain a moment's resting in the
female Jewish heart. We are His — His own — and every
expression in His Holy Word proves that we are so, and that
now, aye, even now, every woman who bears the glorious name
of Israel, be she rich or poor — full of good deeds and pious
thoughts, or bereft of all but a childlike faith and guileless love
of God — still she has spiritual privileges ; a closer, dearer, more
blessed connexion with her Father in heaven, than is the lot
of any woman. She cannot read her Bible without feeling this.
Oh, let her prom it in the sight of the whole world !

CHAPTER IV.

THE SHUNAMMITE.

THE poor widow so mercifully relieved and blessed, marki
the social and spiritual condition of the humbler classes of Israel-

52 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

itish women. We are now about to consider a Jewish female
in a much higher station.

In the town of Shunem dwelt one, designated in the Bible aa
a "great woman," meaning a we man of rank and consequence,
to whose hospitable house the prophet Elisha ever turned when
he passed through the town. It was not the custom of the
prophets to enter the houses of the great and eat at their luxu
rious tables, preferring the humble meal and lowly roof as more
accordant with their heavenly mission than the good things of
earth. Not that they resembled the self-mortifying ascetios of
some Gentile creeds, and imagined that their merit in the sight
of God was weighed according to the extent of their self-inflicted
penances ; but simply, that the mind might be kept clearer, the
spirit poorer: and the body healthier, by moderation in all
things. Their mission of love, too, was to all classes, and the
poor could not have come to them with such confidence, as in
case of the widow, if their luxurious style of living placed them
with the nobles of the land.

That to lodge and eat amid the wealthy was contrary to their
usual habits, we learn from the forcible expression, "she can-
strained him to eat bread [bread in Hebrew comprising all
sorts of food, of course signifies regular meals]. A.nd so it was,
that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread ;"
and in so doing, it is evident that he found the Shunammite,
one of " the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to
Baal nor kissed him," and accepted her hospitality in the same
spirit of piety and kindly love with which it was proffered.

Once he had been constrained, for the prophet might have
feared that the wealth and luxury which marked the abode
was impregnated with the same awful seeds of vice and impiety
which desecrated the wealthy of the capital ; but a second time
he needed not constraint, for one interview sufficed to mark the
spiritual elevation of his hosts, and that they were indeed those
with whom a prophet of the Lord might enjoy the delights of
social intercourse in innocence and peace.

Not content with proffering the mere hospitality of rest and
food, we find the Shunammite saying to her husband, " Behold
now, I know this is a holy man of God which passeth by us
continually. Let us make him a little chamber, I pray thee, in
the wall ; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and
a stool, and a candlestick : and it shall be, when he cometh te

PERIOD IV. THE 6IIUNAMMITE. 53

us, that he shall turn in thither." And we know that h'sr
husband's acquiescence was instantly obtained, and her plan
accomplished ; for the very next verse we read, " And it fell on
a day that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber
and slept there."

Briefly as this is related, how beautifully it illustrates tho
character of woman — the eager desire to show kindness, and so
to show it as best to harmonize with the feelings and habits of
its object. The establishment was probably the highest and
most influential in Shunem. The Shunammite was an indepen
dent mistress of her own household, possessed of power to ask
whom, and to do what she willed ; she is the prime mover in
the whole narration ; and she it is tD whom the reward is given,
as the one from whose pure mind and noble heart the hospi
table kindness originally came.

That she did not at first know Elisha as a prophet, does but
enhance the mild benevolence of her character. There was
nothing in his appearance to mark superior rank or superior
endowments ; nothing probably but a gentle courtesy of man
ners which marked him worthy of kindness and attention. That
they would ever be returned, she could not for a moment sup
pose, for the stranger was evidently a wanderer, with no settlet.
home or calling. But true benevolence never thinks of further
recompense than the act of showing kindness brings. It is
wrong to suppose that benevolence is but synonymous with acts
of chanty to the poor and needy. It finds space for its encou
ragement in every social and domestic duty of life. Benevo
lence to equals appears almost a paradox ; yet it is not : for
were such more often proved, in the earnest search after one
another's social happiness, in acts of daily kindness, and ever
active fellow feeling, how much happier might this life be !

It was this rare and beautiful benevolence which the Shu-
nammite so richly possessed, and which is still more forcibly
displayed in building a chamber for the man of' God, than in
her first hospitality. A very few interviews probably convinced
her that he was something beyond that which he appeared
and the prophet's own lips might have told the rest, or at leaal
have imparted that his mission was of God. The bustle and
varied scenes of a large establishment were no fit home for one
who, when not employed in the service of his fellow-creatures,
passed his time in meditation and prayer. Even a chamber to

54 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

himself within the house would not have permitted him tho
privacy he desired, besides causing him to diverge from tha
plan of moderation and retirement, demanded from him as a
prophet and a reprover, by act as well as word, of the far-
spreading vices of the time.

To remedy this, and silently tempt his sojourning a longer
time with them than the mere acceptance of a meal, the Shu-
nammite's ready mind conceived the idea of erecting a chamber
expressly for him, with an egress and ingress of its own, and fur
nished with that kindly regard to all, which might make him
look upon it as his own. Her plan was, of course, imparted to
her husband, and how clearly does her simple expression, " Let
us make a little chamber, I pray thee," evince the affectionate
confidence only found when husband and wife are equals ; even
though, by a succeeding verse, we are led to suppose that her
husband was very much older than herself.

The chamber was built and furnished ; and greatly must
Elisha have been surprised and affected by this proof of regard.
We find him, in truth, making no remark ; but how deeply he
felt it, we learn by his desiring his servant the following morn
ing to " call the Shunammite." Call her ? Why, had she not
been in the chamber to give him welcome, and bid him look on all
around him as his own ? No. Her truly refined and feminine
nature shrank back from obtruding herself upon the prophet,
and so compelling thanks and approbation. She wished him to
feel the comfort of a retired and private home, but not that he
owed her obligation : and so she kept aloof, demanding no more
than her own heart gave, in the delightful thought that it was in
her power to add to the comfort of a man of God.

And in this eager desire to reverence and serve the prophet,
can we not read the love she bore to God ? To mere earthly
natures Elisha would have been nothing more than any other man
— except perhaps exciting the emotions of dislike and dread with
which those persons are ever regarded, whose lives and even
characters are the reprovers of our own ; but to those who truly
and earnestly seek to love God, His ministers are especial objects
of reverence and care • and such was the feeling of the Shunam
mite.

" Behold ! thou hast been careful for us, with all this care,"
was the address of Gehazi, by his master's command ; " what is
to be done for thee ? wouldst thou be spoken for to the king, 01

PERIOD IV. — THE SHUN AM MITE. 5fl

lo the captain of the host ? And she answered, I dwell amon*
mine own people."

And what a volume of feeling is contained in these brief words !
Not only a perfect contentment with her lot, but a meek and sor
rowful reproach, that they could think she had shown this care
in the hope of reward. Nothing can be more painful to a deli
cately feeling mind, than the idea of receiving return for au<rht
of kindness : the heart glowing with its own warmth, with the
peculiar pleasure of serving another, shrinks chilled into itself
feeling how completely it is misunderstood ; how little its pure
motives can be appreciated. Some natures would have been
indignant at the supposition that she could not do a kind deed
without reward; but the character of the Shunammite permit
ted not the expression of the feeling. Her lip was closed but
her heart was full. Expostulation with Gehazi at the injustice
o the motive attributed to her, or acceptance of the offer, were
alike contrary to the retiring dignity of her character; and
sirnpy saying, "I dwell among mine own people," she retreated
Hastily, as desirous the conference should be closed ; but Elisha
was not satisfied. He himself, probably, did full justice to the
pious motives whv:h had actuated her ; but he wished to make
publicly manifest that no action engaged in out of pure love of
God and reverence to His ministers, should pass without reward •
and on bearing from Gehazi that her husband was old and she
had no child, be again summoned her, and this time into his
immediate presence.

It was no doubt, with some little repugnance she obeyed •
fearing that ber sensitive feelings might again be wounded by a
proffer of service whi;h she had so fully resolved not to accept
when he had called her, she stood at the door"— how
impressively betraying her reluctance ! She could not refuse to
speak with her guest; but, with that mixture of humility and
real dignity which the true-feeling woman knows so well how to
blend, she waited his commands on the threshold of his apart
ment.

This ti™, however, no offer of reward chilled and saddened
ber ino prOphet asked not, sought not, the expression of her
wishes ; but at once promised, " Thou shalt embrace a son"— a
child, a son ! Should she indeed possess that for which, as a
woman of Israel in the oLen time, she must so often have Ion*.
«d, tho-igh the wish was never uttered ! and, in the fulness of

56 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

her sudden joy, the promise seemed too precious for belief, " Nay,
my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid !'
Sti1], even in that moment, we trace the same gentle self-posses
sion which had characterized her answer to Gehazi. No burst
of rapture, no triumph, as would have been had she looked to
her hospitality to bring reward. No ; while her whole heart
must have so trembled with the suddenly awakened hope and
joy, that steady thought was impossible, yet she spoke calmly,
seeking to strengthen her faith in the promise, by the recollec
tion it was in truth a " man of God who spoke," even while she
besought him not to deceive her — the very entreaty proving how
earnestly and how long she had yearned for such a blessing.

Doubt of the power of the Eternal to bring the promise to
pass, it is evident, never assailed her. Her words to the prophet
sprang merely from a too sudden thought of joy, and the antici
pation was fulfilled ; for at the proper season, exactly in accord
ance with Elisha's promise, she embraced a son.

Can we not picture the increase of domestic love and happi
ness which this infant treasure must have created in the Shu-
nammite's happy household ? All we read of her, marks her
the very character to enjoy to the full the intense happiness of
maternal love, in its highest and most spiritual sense — one whose
years passed in deeds not words ; who would enshrine deeply in
her ow n heart those pure emotions and high feelings from which
the simplest action sprang, — one whose best resources had ever
been independent of all outward excitement, and who, " dwell
ing among her own people," had not a thought nor ambition
beyond Her home was the shrine which knew her best, and
from which the mild light of kindness and benevolence emanated
many roods around. To such a one, life, even when childless,
could never have been sad ; yet how many a lonely moment, a
yearning thought unspoken, uncomplained of, yet still her own,
must have been filled with the irrepressible gush of tenderness
called forth by her child ! How inexpressibly sweet must have
been the holy task of leading that infant heart to God, and in
the very midst of national sin and misery training him for hea
ven ! Can we not fancy her strong affections concentrating their
force and intensity around her boy, and lifting up her whole souj
in increased adoration to her God ?

Nine or ten years might have thus passed ; and her love and
care seemed blessed in the growth and improvements of hei

PERIOD IV. THE SHUNAMMITK. 5?

elinfl. He was now old enough to leave his mother's side, and
sometimes accompany his father in his agricultural employments.
We can imagine him, in his innocent glee, running from field to
field, and eagerly sharing every rural occupation. A sudden
stroke, either from the burning heat of the sun or some other
cause, arrested his boyish joys, and, clinging to his father, he
oould only utter, " My head ! my head !" Imagining it only a
slight pain, which would soon pass, his father desired one of his
men to carry him to his mother ; " and when they had taken
him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon
and died."

What a sudden and awful change ! A few orief hours
previous, the fond mother had parted with her darling in full
health and glee, and he was brought back to her pale, suffering,
powerless— only sufficiently sensible to cling to her neck and
lay his burning head upon her bosom. And she sat still,
calm — apparently unmoved — lest the faintest display of her
uncontrollable agony should increase his suffering, or disturb him
as he lay. That every aid possible to be obtained to alleviate the
disease was sought, we cannot doubt ; but the mother moved
not, nor would she have her child removed, whilst life remained.
And when we read this, shall we say the narratives of the Biblo
enter not into the emotions of the present day; that the
characters there represented are of a nature utterly distinct from
ours ? W7hat mother, more especially of an only child, can read
the brief record of "they brought him to his mother, and he
sat on her knees and died," without sympathy; and as she
pictures the sad scene in her fancy, without feeling that human
nature, alike in sorrow or joy, is in all ages the same ; and that,
therefore, the Bible records do indeed concern her, for they speak
of characters in all their strength and weakness, faults and
virtues, like her own ?

No sound of wailing, no murmur of complaint, escaped the
mother's lips, as the breath of life passed from that loved form ;
as those sweet eyes, still fixed on her, became dim and lustreless,
and even the faint moan of infant suffering no longer met her
ear. " She rose and went up, and laid him on the bed of the
man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out. Am
she called to her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one
of the young men and one of the asses, that I mav run to th<?

68 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

man of God and come again. And he said, Wherefore
wilt thou go to him to-day? it is neither new moon nor
Sabbath. And she said, It shall be well."

Here, again, is woman brought before us in her highest an]
loveliest nature. A weak mind would have only felt, iw\
acted ; would have been so overwhelmed with agony, as to have
been incapable of any thought but thft affliction which had
befallen her. Not so the Shunammite ; sustained by that noblr
energy, that perfect self-control, which had characterized her
whole life, this trial cannot disturb the beautiful harmony of he"
character. Even to her husband she is silent j*s to their heavr
affliction, and she evades his question ; — whilst there is hope, —
aye, and to her faithful heart there is hope even now, though tlu»
child is dead — she will not afflict her husband. The fu.l tide of
grief is laid up in her own breast, aside from herself. Till sin?
has acted, she has no time to sit down and weep, though her
throat is dry and her breath impeded. We read the unutterable
agony in her movements, not her words — " she saddled an ass
and said to her servant, Drive on, and go forward, slack not thj
riding for me, except I bid thee." What was to her the heat
the fatigue of this unusual journey ? She had but one thought
the man of God. He alone who had promised her " a child
from the Lord," could have the power, by prayer, to restore him
even from the dead. One recollection only mingles with the
thought, Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. Had not he/
child been restored from the dead ? and had not Elisha equa)
power with the gracious Lord? Without this thought, this-
faith, ;he mother must have sunk ; for minds like hers ever
prostrate the frame. Tears and complaints give relief: it is thp
heart which never breathes its grief that bows the body to tht
dust. And not alone the power of Elisha was uppermost in her
mind ; she must have known, have perfectly realized the
attributes of Elisha's God, or the thought of the prophet would
have been no comfort. She must have felt that God was love
had compassion and sympathy even for her individually, ?
woman, a mere speck in this creation, or how could she have
believed that He would grant His prophet the power to relieve
I isr ? She knew, as all believing Israel did, that prophets were
mere instruments in His Almighty hand, of themselves powerless
spiritless, as their less favored brethren. And, therefore, thai

PERIOD IV. THE 8 H U S A. M M I T B . 59

the Siiunammite had a man of God through whom to seek, does
not in any way prevent the example from bearing upon us. We
have not Elisha, but we have still Elisha's God.

The way was not very long ; but oh ! the intenninable period
it must have felt to that poor mother's heart, till Mount Carmel
was reached ! And how could she know the holy man was
there ? for he was a wanderer through Judea. But the impulse
leading in that direction was of the Lord ; and even before her
dim eyes discovered the Prophet, he had recognised her afar off;
and, surprised, bade Gehazi run to meet her, and ask if it were
well with her, and her husband and child ? thus demonstrating
how kindly and lovingly the human emotions were ever at work
in the heart of the holy man. But to Gehazi she could give no
reply, save as she had said before to her husband, " It is well ;"
hers was no grief to speak to indifferent ears. None but Elisha
could assist her, and her heart was too closely wrapt in its own
anguish to open to any but to him. Yet what stern command
must she have had over her woman's nature to retain her
calmness during this journey ! Control never failed her, till she
beheld the man of God, and sank almost powerless at his feet.
She had reached him, indeed ; but the energy which had
sustained her throughout, seemed deserting her. She had no
p(;wer to utter the entreaty with which her heart was filled. She
could only clasp his knees, and gaze on his face, in agony, till
roused br the kindly gentleness with which the prophet
reproved Gehazi for seeking to thrust her aside. " Let hei
alone," he said, " for her soul is vexed within her ; and the Lord
has hid it from me, and has not told me." Then she said, " Did
I desire a son of my lord ? Did I not say, Do not deceive me ?"
The mother could not say her boy was dead. Faith was strong
within her that he would be saved ; and how powerfully doea
the very form of her address to the prophet betray the depth, the
intensity of her feelings : refusing, even to him, to give vent to
the torrent of grief and lamentation, and even of reproach, which
would have burst forth unrestrainedly from a weaker and less
superior mind.

Elisha needed no further information ; and promptly he
desired Gehazi to take his staff, and neither loiter nor speak by
the way, till he had laid it on the face of the child. But this
was not sufficient for the poor mother. " As the Lord liveth,
and as thy soul liveth," she implored, " I will not leave thee."

SO 1HE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

None could be to her as, Elisha, and he rebuked her not, noi
denied her; his heart was too full of kindly emotions, and he
arose and followed her.

But not to Gehazi was such a miracle vouchsafed ; his com
ing to meet his master with the information, "the child s not
awake," probably first convinced Elisha the event was of the
Lord, and that the necessary power -yrould be granted him.
The restoring the dead was a greater miracle than he had yet
performed ; and as we find him saying, " The Lord hath hid it
from me, and hath not told me," he perhaps at first supposed
that the child was merely in a stupor resembling death, and
the virtue of the prophetic staff would revive him. But
Gehazi's words proved to him that the child was really dead ;
and he quickened his steps, and hastened to his own chamber,
where the child lay, " and shut the door upon the twain, and
prayed unto the Lord." Words, how full of important mean
ing ! In every other action of the prophet we find the pro
phetic spirit acting, as it were, instantaneously. The power
intrusted to him for the good of the Eternal's chosen, as for the
punishment of the unrighteous and disobedient, had seemed
ready at his word. In this it was no consequence of his super
human endowments, but simply the effect of prayer unto the
Lord. He might foretell events, might multiply oil, render
poison harmless ; so feed a hundred men with twenty loaves,
arid a few baskets of first fruits, that they were not only satis
fied, but left thereof! might bid iron swim, and know what the
king said in his bed-chamber, though hundreds of miles away ;
buj life and death were laid up with the Lord, and prayer only
gave him power over the human frame.*

What a tumult of contending emotions must have oppressed
the Shunammite during that awful interval ! Let any anxious
mother recall the time when the darling of her heart has been
pronounced sick unto death — that there is no hope — death is
fast approaching, when, in the wild agony of her despair, she
has refused belief in the skill of him who has thus spoken, and
sent or flown for the first physician of the age, and led him
to the chamber of her child, and left him there, without the
power of waiting for his decisive mandate, and then sunk
prostrate in her own closet before her God, seeking to pray, but

* Asisfurthei displayed very strikingly in 2 Kings vi. 17. 18.

PERIOD IV. THE SHUflAMMITE. 61

finding her words trembling, fearing, hoping, and only eon-
lous that life and death are with the Lord, and, if He willed
the skill she had so wildly sought might save her darlinrr still!
Let any mother recall such periods of her life, and she may
enter into the feelings of the Shunarnmite, as she sat alone in that
interval of suspense, for her husband, still out in his agricultural
employment, knew not of the suffering at home, and she had
n°w none to look to in her agony, save her God.

Time passed; how long she knew not, save that she felt as if
an age were passing over heart and head. Hush ! Is it th-
prophet's voice? The mother started from her prostrate
prayer her head flung back, her very breath ceasing "Call
tins bhunammite," seemed to have rung in her ears; but it
might be only fancy, only the mocking torture of her bewil
dered brain. No ! Gehazi is at her door— he calls her to his
master, though he says not wherefore, and she does not look
unon his face to read his tidings there. She stood within the
prophet's chamber— she glanced upon the bed— her boy lived
breathed, smiled, stretched out his arras to her once more and
the voice of the prophet spake, « Take up thy son." And she
sought to obey ; but the spirit which had sustained her in
sorrow, in suspense, departed now, and she fell at his feet
powerless, voiceless, conscious only that her child lived— that
the prayer of Elisha, and the compassionate love of Elisha's God
had given her back the dead.

And even when she recovered sufficiently to bow herself to
the very ground, in silent acknowledgment of the power of
Uisha, the mercy of her God, and, with her living child clasped
to her bosom, retired from the chamber, leaving the man of
Bod to the adoration and meditation which this great mercy
called, still no word broke from that heart, so swelling in thank
fulness atd love that only tears might relieve it ; and beautifully
does this stillness continue to illustrate the character of this
sweet and gentle woman, so controlled, so energetic in affliction,
so calm, so still in joy— so full of deep, of intense feeling, sensi-
ility, affection, yet so restrained within, that though all around
her felt its blessed effects, alike in deed, and word, and man-
ner, none knew its extent save her God.

Blessed as must have been the little domestic circle of the
Shunammite before, it must have been thrice blessed from the
restoration of her child. What must have been the feelings of

62 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the husband and the father on his return, when told that, in so
short a space, his treasured child had been snatched from him
by death, and been restored ? How must his heart have
glowed in increased love and veneration for the gentle woman,
who, rather than expose him to the agony of such intelligence,
had buried it all in her own breast ; and sought the prophet
alone and unsoothed, and, through that energetic promptness,
had been a lowly instrument in the hands of the Lord for the
restoration of her child ! Had she lingered in unavailing and
probably complaining sorrow — had she permitted herself to fail
in faith and prayer — she had not sought the prophet, nor would
her child have been restored, for she would have been no fit
receiver for such manifestation of almighty love.

The character of the Shunammite was not one to change or
waver. We find her, at a later period, displaying the same
retiring gentleness, yet dignified self-possession and energetic
will. Some years must have passed, and from there being no
mention of the Shunammite's husband in affairs which, had he
been living, would have devolved upon him, not on her, we
infer that she had become a widow, an inference confirmed by
the previous statement that " her husband was old."

Elisha had never lost sight of her, but had probably continued
to occupy the " little chamber," whenever he passed through
Shunem. He advised a removal, which must have been both
irksome and painful to one whose house had always been on one
spot, and whose richest possessions consisted of the land, and
flocks, and herds around it, which she could not carry away
with her, nor for the safety of which provide. However, she
had too much faith and trust to hesitate in obedience ; and
when the mandate of the prophet came, " Arise, and go thou
and thine household, and sojourn wheresoever thou can?*
Bojourn : for the Lord hath called for a famine ; and it shall also
tome upon the land seven years," she unhesitatingly " arose,
and did after the saying of the man of God : and she went
with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Philistines
seven years." A sojourn which would have been inexpressibly
sad to such a true follower of Israel, had she not been cheered
by the blessed thought of the Eternal's continued care for her.
What was she in His sight ? and yet, even by His prophet, He
had deigned to warn her of the evil about to ensue, and provide
for her safety, by permission to sojourn whithersoever she

PERIOD IV. THE SHUNAMMITE. QX

would. In those seven years of exile, how much must have
devolved on her to keep her son and her household faithful, and
live as if they were still in their own land, and still guided by
the counsels of the man of God ! Can we not fancy the morn
ing and evening prayer arising daily from that little circle of
faithful hearts led by a woman's voice, and the Sabbaths and
the festivals marking that lowly home a sanctuary before the
Lord ? Oh ! if the heart be but true to its God, it matters littlo
where its home is cast. The magnet points unfailingly to its
answering star wheresoever the vessel glides. In tempest or
calm, in cold or heat, it wavers not, or fails to guide aright ; and
so is it with the man whose heart, like the magnet to the pole,
is fixed upon its God.

At the end of the seven years, the Shunammite and her
household returned to Judea ; but her home and land had been
seized during her absence, and apparent ruin and privation in
consequence was her welcome home. Some would have been
ready to accuse Elisha as the cause of the evil, as having
advised her removal. Others, again, would have demanded, 01
at least depended on, the prophet's influence with the king.
The Shunammite felt and did neither. With calm self-posses
sion she went herself to make her complaint before the king,
and demand her house and land. This was no service in which
Elisha's spiritual ministry was needed. It was no favor for
herself, no advancement for her boy. The heart which had
once answered, " I dwell among mine own people," to offers of
reward, had not changed. As a woman and a widow in Israel,
her sole plea was the justice of her cause.

But though with true feminine delicacy she had shrunk from
appealing to Elisha in this emergency, the Eternal had so
ordered events, that the prophet was in fact the true cause of
the king's instant attention to her suit. It so chanced that the
king was talking to Gehazi, and demanding a recital of the great
things Elisha had done ; and at the very time the young man
was repeating the restoration of the dead child, the. Shunammite
herself appeared before the king, led into his presence by that
very beloved child, now grown into manhood, of whom Gehazi
spoke. « Behold, my lord, 0 king," he exclaimed, " this is the
woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. And
when the king asked the woman, she told him." And so
strong an impression did the narrative make, that without hesi

84 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

tation he appointed unto her a certain officer, saying, " Restore
all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field, since the day that
she left the land, even until now."

Gratefully mu4 the Shunammite have recognised the hand of
God in this instant judgment, from one whose character was
noted for impotence and indecision — one whose very justice was
ever likely to be sullied by caprice ; for though we are
expressly told in Holy Writ that Jehoram's character was not
of the actively evil, as his father and his mother, Ahab and
Jezebel, his whole history marks him one of those faineants,
whose indolence and weakness wrought a1 most as much evil in
Israel as wickedness itself.

The energy which had urged the prosecution of her suit was
indeed rewarded. Not only were all her possessions restored,
but their full value, during her seven years of absence. Through
her exertions, her boy received his inheritance ; and from his
non-interference, though he must have been quite of an age to
assert his own right, what a powerful proof have we of the deep
veneration in which the mothers of Israel were regarded by
their sons ! We hear no more of the Shunammite ; but we
have become sufficiently intimate with her sweet character to
picture her declining years, full of piety, of that calm and
beautiful dignity, which, if woman's in her youth, will never
forsake her in her age. Full of love to God and man, of good
deeds and blessed thoughts, it was for her, and for seven thousand
such as her, who had not bowed the knee to Baal, that the Eter
nal, in his loving mercy, still restrained His avenging wrath.

The peculiar charm of the Shunammite's character is its
unity, its harmonious blending of parts. In every position,
adversity or prosperity, or that period of often greater trial than
either — the uninterrupted routine of daily life — still we see her
in the same calm and beautiful light, never turning aside from
the beaten path of duty, never seeking more than the day may
bring, and finding enough there, not only to occupy her, but to
give her grace and favor in the sight of God. But though
never apparently disturbed, her calmness was not indifference.
All that we read of her betrays an under-current of intense
feeling, which, while it caused her to suffer deeply, also endowed
her with the purest susceptibility to joy. Feeling it was, that
inspired that constantly working energy which never permitted
her to sit down and weep when she could act, or remain satis-

PERIOD IV. THE SHUNAMMITE. 65

Lfid with the mere expression of kindness, when she could
ttmnifest it in deed : and of that intensity of feeling, piety was
the spring. No heart can rest indifferent when once awakened
to a love of God, and, as must follow, a love of man. It was
with no thought of reward she showed such warm hospitality to
Elisha, yet from that one deed all her after-happiness sprang.
He was the chosen servant of the Eternal ; and a service dono
to him was an offering to his God. From first to last, the
character of the Shunammite offers the beautiful lesson of exam
ple. Her good use of wealth and greatness — her moderation in
all citcumstances — her firmness in affliction — her absolute
control of every emotion till her child was restored — her unself
ish endurance of anxiety and anguish, rather than impart them
to her husband — her calm, yet energetic prosecution of her son's
rights — -ail these are points which every young daughter of
Israel ma<r admire and imitate, even though her position in life
be different. We must exercise energy and self-control in little
things, even in daily employments, or we shall never find them
when most needed. We must set out in life with a conviction
that we are destined for something worthier and nobler than the
mere routine of frivolous employments and unmeaning recrea
tions — that we are endowed with a heart and mind, for the
proper use of which an account will be demanded; and sad
will it be if we then feel, that the impulses and usefulness oi
both have been neglected, and opportunities, alike of virtuous
deeds and beneficial feeling, have long passed us by unused.

And as women of Israel, even more powerfully should the
history of the Shunammite aflect us ; her elevated character —
her domestic and social influence — nay, the very mention of her
is a " great woman " — the mention of her, instead of her hus
band or son, as the principally concerned in the whole narration
• — all convince us that even in such an era of national anarchy
and discord, the women of Israel were in the full enjoyment of
all the liberty and privileges, spiritual and temporal, granted
them in the law of God. Her very piety, which obtained her
such favor in the sight of God and of His prophet, is unspeak
able comfort to us now. She had, indeed, the friendship and
counsel of a prophet, which we cannot have ; but her piety had
life and influence at a period of much darker misery and sin,
and rebellion, and idolatry, than we have to encounter now.
To retain purity and faithfulness, to walk firmly in the very

66 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

midst of vast multitudes who so derided all true piety and
adherence to the law of God as to endanger even personal
safety, was a position of infinitely harder trial than is ours now.
The Shunammite's being blessed with Elisha, raises no barrier
between us. What the prophets were to the faithful in the
olden time, the word of the Lord is now to us. We cannot
too often dwell upon the truth, that the same gracious God
who manifested Himself through prophets and miracles to our
ancestors is ours still, and has granted us a record of His words
and works, to give us strength, and hope, and comfort, till that
glorious day when we shall be restored to our own land, and
His almighty presence be again revealed.

The natural powers and endowments of the Shunammite
were not superior to woman's capabilities now ; and, therefore,
that she found such grace and favor in the sight of God, as for
Him, in his infinite mercy, to restore her child from the dead,
should encourage us to follow in the same. holy and rejoicing
path. Events so marked as those in the Shunammite's history,
may never be ours ; but the piety of thought and deed is never
passed unheeded by our God. The Shunammite was one of
the seven thousand, who alone remained faithful amid countless
millions. Let each of Israel's daughters determine to prove
herself one of the faithful, which in every age is found, unseen,
unrecognised, perhaps, by man, when mourning over apparent
universal indifference, and falling away from the rock of right
eousness ; but known, recognised, aye, and upheld by God.
Let her not think that, as a woman, her prayers and deeds are
unavailing, save perchance unto herself. No ! as a woman of
Israel, she is one of the supporters of a temple which will last
for ever ; nationally, as well as individually, she is bound to
forward the holy carse ; and she may rest assured that hei
piety and faithfulness, even aj those of man, will hasten " tl«
j(reat and glonous day of the Lord."

PERIOD IV. I8RAELITISH MAID. 67

CHAPTER V.

11TTLE T8RAELITI8II MAID. HULDAH. IN
FLUENCE OF WOMEN DURING THE MONAR
CHY.

THAT the Eternal often chooses the weakest and the feeblest,
through whose unconscious influence to spread a knowledge of
His ways and works amid the Gentiles, is proved by the men
tion of the little Israelitish maid (see 2 Kings v. 2, 3, &c.). In
one of the predatory excursions of the Syrians into the north of
Judea, they had carried off, amongst other booty, a little maid,
who became the property of Naaman's wife. Naaman was the
captain of the host of the king of Syria, a man of high rank and
great valor, who had frequently been the means of deliverance
to Syria ; but he had become a leper, and was, of course, inca
pacitated from all public duties and domestic enjoyments. It
must have been a sad change to the little maid of Israel ; torn
from the bosom of her affectionate family, and sold as a slave
in the service of a heathen. But it is clear, from her recollec
tion of Elisha, and her earnest wish that her master would go
to him to be cured of his leprosy, that she was a child of one
of the seven thousand faithful, and one who had been tenderly
and spiritually brought up in the religion of her God ; aijd,
consequently, with firm faith in the power of His prophets.
We can picture her child-like orisons, rising morning and even
ing in the language of her country to Israel's God, undisturbed
by the heathen worship with which she was surrounded ; lin
gering with fond affection on the memory of her parents, che
rishing their instructions in her heart of hearts, and praying to
God, as they taught her, to keep her undefiled, that she might
bear witness to His glory.

The effect of true piety never fails to obtain the love and kind
ness of our fellow-creatures. The respectful deference of the
young slave, her quiet discharge of her duties, her uncomplain
ing gentleness, though often visible sadness, had no doubt
attracted the attention of her mistress, and called forth, not only

68 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

kindness towards the child, but led her to confide in her her owi
affliction from her husband's disease. A peculiar sanctity evei
surrounded the Hebrews, in the eyes even of many ignorant and
heathen nations. They were not only the Firstborn of the Lord
in spiritual privileges ; but, in arts and sciences, and all that
marked them, almost an age in advance, both in refinement and
intellect. It is not improbable that the ^vife of Naaman was
questioning her young slave as to the treatment of Lepers in
Judea, of which the child could give her but little information ;
but all she had heard of Elisha, we may imagine, flashing on
her mind, the power he had received from the Eternal, the
miracles he had done, the tender kindness his character had so
often evinced, caused the instant exclamation, " Would God my
lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria ; for he would
recover him of his leprosy." There is no hesitation, no doubt
— the very faith of a child satisfied that it was in his power, and
he would do it. And so completely did that simple faith enter
into the hearts of those who heard, that we find not only
Naaman's domestics and Naaman himself, but the king of Syria
acting upon it, the very instant that it was reported, " Thus, i.A
thus, saith the maid, who is of the land of Israel."

The story of Naaman's visit to Judea, and miraculous cure,
does not enter into the plan of this history, much as we should
delight in dwelling upon it, as so strikingly illustrative of the
Eternal's loving-mercy, over all His creatures. Naaman was a
heathen, and often an enemy to Judea ; yet, when he sought the
prophet of the Lord, even he was accepted, and a miracle per
formed in his behalf. How powerfully should this rebuke us,
when inclined to pronounce harsh judgment on the religion of a
fellow-creature, or arrogate to ourselves alone, or to those who
think exactly with us, the sole care and love of our Creator !

How happy must the littltj Maid of Israel have felt, when she
beheld her master perfectly cu*ed; and the God of her fathers
acknowledged and worshipped, as the sole and only one, by
those who had so lately been heathens and idolaters — " Thy ser
vant will henceforth offer neither burnt-offering, nor sacrifice,
unto other gods, but unto the LORD," Naaman had declared unto
Elishn : and when she saw this change, how must the Hebrew
child have rejoiced ! That all had originated in her confident
reference to the prophet, she probably never knew ; but we see
that she was the direct instrument in the Lord's hand, to bring

PERIOD IV. ISRAELITISH MAID. 6S

nbout the revelation of His power ; she had glorified Him by
trusting in His prophet, and so made both her God and His
servant venerated in a Gentile land. But this would not have
been had she been ashamed to confess her religion and hei
country before men. A solitary exile in the household of
Naaman, young, and undirected by man, holier associations
must have been powerful within her, to have prevented the
sdoption of the forms and customs, and even worship, of those
around her. The childish faith which caused the exclamation
and its consequences, as we have recorded, did not spring from
the mere impulse of the moment, but from the education and
subsequent thought of early years. That which springs from
mere impulse would have been startled and terrified at the
instant acting on the words ; but to the child of Israel, there was
no fear or doubt.

If then even a child, a female child, was permitted to be the
means of bringing a heathen household to a knowledge of the
only God, shall we not do all we can to make the education of
our children subservient to the same great end ? Amongst
heathens and idolaters, indeed, we do not dwell ; but thrown, as
we are so often, into terms of intimacy and kindness with those
who worship God, though not as we do, it is more necessary
than ever to infuse a national spirit amongst us ; to inculcate
into the very youngest of our families, who and what they are
— that a solemn charge is intrusted to them, as witnesses of the
Eternal — and that a denial or concealment of our true faith, and
sacrifice of its ordinances, to assimilate with the world, is a denial
ot God Himself. Let us teach our children from earliest infancy
to venerate and glory in their faith ; and that faith will be
respected in them by every Gentile with whom they associate.
The law of God makes no distinction between the education of
sons and daughters, and let us make none ; both are equally
children of Israel— and both equally heirs of all the spiritual and
temporal privileges which that holy nam€ includes. Let our
daughters then feel and glory in their nationality ; and by mak
ing the religion of their fathers the mainspring of their being, so
serve the cause of God, and so elevate the character of Israel,
that their very exile may hasten the day of our restoration, by
bringing all the nations to a knowledge of the Lord. The young
est child may, like the little maid of Israel, bear witness to the
truth of her religion, and the power of her God. An infant of

fO THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

six years once had the moral courage, in the midst of an assem
blage of Gentile children, and her mother was not present, to
refuse touching some forbidden food, and with childish and most
touching artlessness to say aloud that they were not allowed to
eat it. And that infant upheld the sanctity of her religious
ordinances, and inspired a feeling of respect and admiration, not
only towards herself, but towards the religion she professed ; and
this is the practical nationality we should inculcate. Teach a
child from the first that she is the depositary of a solemn office
— that she can, in her own proper person, either elevate or degrade
the religion which her Father in Heaven Himself deigned to give
— that she is not like the children of the soil, for whom it is
enough to follow the multitude, and who have advantages of all
kinds to teach them their religious duty, but one of a peculiar
and holy faith scattered in every land, exiled and often oppressed,
yet still the first-born of the Lord ; and, therefore, that it depends
upon her, even as if she stood alone, to do all she can to raise
her faith, and its blessed ordinances, in the estimation of the
whole Gentile world.

We have now come to a very important character in our
present period, with little to concern us as women generally, but
much to encourage us as women of Israel ; and sufficient in
itself to give a direct denial to the accusation, that the Jewish
religion utterly prohibits all spiritual and intellectual privileges ;
and that for a woman to attempt the study of, or instruction in,
religion, is little less than folly. We have already seen a
femaie judge and prophetess in the person of Deborah ; but still,
if she were the only female so mentioned, we might incline to
the idea that women were thus sanctified only in the very first
selection of Israel. Such, however, is not the fact; several
hundred years had passed away — the kingdom of Israel was
sinking deeper into the abyss of sin. Had there been any
single portion of the law derogatory to woman, or confining her
to a mere household sphere, with neither liberty nor inclination
to employ her intellect and influence, now would have oeen
the very time for such laws to obtain ascendency ; the state
of society must effectually have prevented her rising against
it. If, however, we refer to 2 Kings xxii. 11 — 20, also tc 2
Chron. xxiv. 20 — 29, we shall find a very different picture of
woman in Israel.

The wicked kings Manasseh and A.mjn had been succeeded

PERIOD IV HULDAH. 71

Dy the youthful Josiah, at the early age of eight years. His
mother's name, we are expressy told, was Jebidah, and her
influence it probably was which so guided and instructed his
youthful years as to make him very different from his predecessors.
* He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and
walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside
to the right nor to the left." In the eighteenth year of his
reign, he gave orders for the repairing and beautifying of the
house of the Lord ; and it was when obeying this order that
Hilkiah the high priest found the book of the law, which he gave
to Shaphan the scribe, who, after reading it, brought it unto the
king. What an awful picture do these verses present of the
national apostasy ; that the very high priest should have been
ignorant of the existence of the book of the law in the house of
God, and its enactments and prohibitions, of course, never read,
as was so imperatively commanded, before the people — men,
women, and children ! The mere formula of high priests,
scribes, and other officers of the temple, appeared still filled ; but
what a fearful mockery must it have been before the Lord — the
mere empty shell, whence all of obedience, and love, and
spirituality, had departed.

That the ordinances of the law were utterly disregarded, ia
evident from the effect which the hearing of the law produced
upon Josiah. lie rent his clothes (always a sign of intense
affliction), and sent instantly the priest, and other superior
officers, to " inquire of the Lord for me, and for all Judah,
concerning the words of the book that is found, for great is the
wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our
fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do
according unto all that which is written concerning us." And
O) whom did these high officers go ? to a mighty man of
wisdom ? to a holy man of God, whose sanctity and influence
gave him courage to threaten and to warn, to risk personal
danger from the anger of the populace, whom his denunciations
might enrage ? No ; it was to a WOMAN that they came — a
woman and a WIFE in Israel — and yet an inspired prophetess
of the Eternal, the chosen medium between him and his people,
the bold denouncer of his wrath, and the truthful reporter of his
love.

" And Uilkiah the priest, and Ahikam and Achbor, and
Shaphan, and Asaiah, went untc Huldah the prophetess, th*
15

72 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

wife of Shallum, the son of the keeper of the wardrobe (no*
she dwelt in Jerusalem in the college), and they communed with
her." — Now, if the women of Israel were confined entirely te
their household duties, it is strange that Huldah could have
obtained admission within the college, which was probably an
establishment devoted to the study of the law. Her being a
prophetess does not make an exception in her favor, or render
her dwelling in the college a necessary consequence. We have
seen, in the cases of Elijah and Elisha, that the prophets had no
appointed residence ; but were, generally, wanderers and mere
hojourners in the various cities of Judea. Deborah judged and
prophesied under her own palm tree, between Kamah and
Bethel. Huldah, on the contrary, dwelt in the college ; and
from the officers of Josiah seeking her without any hesitation, as
the only one of whom they could inquire of the Lord, we are
justified in inferring that her wisdom and piety had long been
known and acknowledged in Jerusalem.

The prophetic power was never intrusted to the undeserving,
man or woman ; it was always some superior piety and virtue,
which originally attracted towards them the loving mercy of the
Lord, and rendered them worthy to become His messengers.
No effort after righteousness and virtue, however lowly, passes
unnoticed in His sight; and His love will ever increase the
desire after good, and the power to accomplish it. But virtue
and righteousness were not the only requisites for a prophet ;
they needed intellect, a profound knowledge of the law and of
man, and a strong perception of the ways and works of the
Eternal. Huldah's dwelling in the college supposes a mind
anxious and inquiring after the study of the law, and a heart
yearning to obey every statute therein commanded, while her
very selection as a prophetess, proves that her spiritual privileges
and intellectual powers were on a perfect equality with those of
man.

Yet from the very circumstance of her only being mentioned
once in the sacred record, we may be convinced that her solemn
office interfered not at all with her domestic and conjugal duties,
and that in no one instance she came unduly forward. Woman's
natural sphere is to influence, not to command ; to entreat, not
to threaten ; to lead far more by example than by precept ; and
every woman, conscious of her own weakness, will rejoice that
such is the kind of duties assigned her. In the awful condition

PERIOD IV. HULDAH. 73

of Judea, a mind like Huldah's must have shrunk from coming-
forward. The state of restraint, and subsequent depression,
which must attend the intercourse of pious and believing hearts]
with those to whom all of piety and spirituality a?e utter
strangers, was probably the original cause of Huldah's religious
retirement; seeking to conquer the suffering which the public
and private condition of her country occasioned, by quietly
following the daily routine of domestic duty, and spending every
leisure hour in learning to know that merciful and gracious God,
whom Judea seemed to have forgotten.

Possessed, as she was, of unusual spiritual gifts, her mind
must have been of no ordinary cast, to allow her remaining
contented in a retired sphere, without the restless desire to
become of public service ; her very consciousness of responsibility
would urge this, without any failing of woman's native modesty,
but Huldah waits for the Lord. He who had reposed in her
a gift so* precious would vouchsafe her some sign when to use
it, and meanwhile her duty was to pray, and meditate, and
beseech the Eternal to have mercy on His people. And this
we can all do, though we are not prophetesses ; and we have
His^whole word to prove how much intercessory prayer availeth.
The sign for which the prophetess awaited, came. The
highest officers of the state suddenly approached her, and with
humility and deference reported the sovereign's message, inquir
ing through her the mandate of the Lord. There ia neither
pause nor doubt, as there must have been had she been a mere
pretender in the prophetic art : the rushing spirit of prophecy
was poured within her by Him whoso instrument she was and
with fearless dignity she answered, « Thus saith the Lord God
of Israel : Tell the man that sent you to me, thus saith the
Lord, Behold, I will bring evil on this place and on the inhabit-
ante thereof; even all the words of the book which the kino-
of Judah hath read ; because they have forsaken me, and burnt
incense to other gods, that they might provoke me to an<rer
with all the works of their hands, therefore my wrath shall
kindle against this place, and shall not be quenched." Then,
softening into the tenderest compassion, still inspired by Him
who ever tempereth justice with mercy, she continued, " But
tc the king of Judah who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus
shall ye say to him, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel As
touching the news which thou hast heard ; Because thy heart

V4 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord,
when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against
the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation
and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes and wept before me, I
also have heard thee, saith the Lord ; behold, therefore, I will
gather thee to thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered unto thy
grave in peace, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which
I will bring upon this place ; and they brought the king word
again."

Although this prophecy does not properly belong to a history
of the women of Israel, we have transcribed the whole, that our
readers may better judge the full extent of prophetic power
vouchsafed to Huldah ; and the bold disregard of all, eraept of
her mission, which it evinced. " Tell ye the man who sent ye,"
she says ; yet she has no disrespect for the Lord's anointed, she
was simply uttering the words of the Eternal. The persecution
of Elijah and Elisha marked the prophetic office one of danger,
but Huldah felt nothing but the spirit which inspired her;
feared nothing but to fail in the calm and dignified boldness
required of her as the prophetess of the Lord. The high regard
in which her words were held, is proved by the messengers of
Josiah " bringing the king word again," and by his continuing
his endeavors to render himself worthy of the promised forbear
ance of the Eternal, though the threatened evil to his country
and his people he knew could not be averted.

We have no further mention of Huldah, nor do we need
more lor the confirmation of our assertion, that the women of
Israel enjoyed higher and nobler privileges, in the sight alike
of God and man, than any other women in the world. Every
former argument which we advanced in our notice of Deborah,
is still more strongly applicable to Huldah. One great differ
ence there was, which, however, only marks the nationa^ eleva
tion of women still more forcibly. Deborah lived, and exercised
her prophetic power, at a time when Israel was under the direct
guidance of the Lord; Huldah flourished, not thirty years
before the first captivity, and some centuries after the nation
had, by their sins, thrown a dark cloud between them and their
God. 'The laws and customs, which, according to our oppo
nents, have crept in and sullied, if not entirely altered, the pure
Judaism inculcated by Moses, must have been ascendant during
the period of which we are writing. And in conseque- ce, if

PERIOD IV. HULDAH. 75

they degraded women, it follows that the domestic and social
position of the women of Israel must, during the monarchy,
have given positive evidence of such degradation ; and we
certainly should not find a woman dwelling in the college,
which is synonymous with devoting herself to the study of the
law, and also as the only one, in the whole nation of Judah,
who was intrusted with the prophetic power.

To such a height in spiritual privileges, the women of Israel
cannot now hope to attain ; but the example of Huldah is suffi
cient for them to rest content that the study of the law, and all
religious observances, as well as the piety of the heart, are now
equally incumbent on them as on men, and equally acceptable
before God : and that Israel is the only nation in the whc'e
world in which women sufficiently gifted to perform the offices
of Prophetess and Judge have been found.

These truths ought to be enough for us ; and the very names
of Deborah and Huldah serve as shields to guard us against all
arguments tempting us from the Rock of Ages. We have said
this often, but we cannot too often or too forcibly impress it on
the female Hebrew heart. It depends on woman, not alone to
feel, but to prove its truth ; to shake off all of stagnating
apathy, all of cold indifference : not to rest satisfied with a due
performance of their duties as women — even as pious women, —
but t3 feel and glory in being women of Israel, and infuse
the same national spirit within the hearts and minds of their
children.

Prophetesses, in our present captive state, we cannot hav*,,
nor do we need them, till the spirit of our God rests upon us in
our own fair land once more; but we need the same bold
uncompromising spirit, the same religious zeal and pious fervor
which actuated Huldah. Did every woman in Israel determine
to elevate her faith, and to glorify her God in her own proper
person, apathy, and that fearful want of nationality too often
discoverable amongst us, would vanish altogether. * We should
not be content with mere amalgamation with the Gentiles in
society ; but, without relinquishing the social position which an
age of superior civilization and refinement has assigned us, we
*hould still retain our nationality, — still, before man and before
God, remain Israelites indeed ; and thus compel respect towards
our faith, and remove not only the prejudices excited by igno
rance, but check the zealous efforts of conversionists by convinc-

76 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

ing them that our constancy, as our religion, roust be indeed
of God, and therefore no effort of man can turn us from it.

Nor was it to an unmarried, and therefore more independent
woman, the prophetic power was granted. We are expressly
told that Huldah was the wife of Shall urn, the keeper of the
robes ; and we must therefore feel convinced that the marriage
state in Israel was far from being one of slavery or dependence.
How she contrived to unite her domestic duties with her divine
office, holy writ does not inform us ; but there is no doubt that
both were fully accomplished ; for the chosen messengers of the
Eternal were ever those actuated by the tenderest human
emotions, and the earnest desire to serve all the human family.
We read Huldah's feminine nature in the fact of her being
sought in her own dwelling. The condition of Judea must have
filled her with the deepest suffering, but she left it in the hands
of her God ; content to perform his mission, when called upon
so to do, but never forgetting, even in the furtherance of His
service, the modest and retiring dignity of the woman.

And this is the union we should so strenuously endeavor to
obtain. More than the females of every other nation, are the
women of Israel called upon to cultivate their intellect, that
they may be enabled to comprehend the religion of their
fathers ; that reason and conviction, as well as love and long
associations, should bind it on their hearts. Yet that intellect
must never be obtruded ; never tempt them to quit their own
holy and beautiful sphere. Woman may have opportunities
for the study — aye, and the practice — of religion, which man has
not ; such study will never be in vain ; opportunities of useful -
ness, of influence, will come to her : she need never seek them
by the sacrifice of feminine gentleness and retirement ; and man
will thankfully seek that comfort and even guidance from her,
which, had they been obtruded on him, he would condemn
and scorn.

Oh ! that the history of the past would influence the present ;
that the women of Israel would feel to their hearts' core, that
they are still the same, in the sight of their God, as their
ancestors of old ; that they have it in their power, individually,
to hasten that day when "the earth shall be covered with the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." Piety
must come from the mind as well as the heart ; and the more
the intellect is cultivated, the tetter will it enter into th«

PERIOD IV. — FEMALE INFLUENCE. 77

mysteries alike of Creation and Revelation, of the works and the
Word of God ; and the clearer these become, the purer, higher,
more deeply spiritual, will be the emotions of adoring love,
uniting the soul with God. We must not rest content with
mere accomplishment ; we must rise superior to the frivolity and
excitements which form the existence of some women ; or how
can we become worthy, or make our souls worthy, to be once
more the favored of the Lord ? Women of Israel ! the very
name should impress our hearts with a solemn conviction of our
individual responsibility, and urge us on to such spiritual and
'ntellectual improvement as will mark us, in the eyes of the
whole world, as worthy descendants of the first-born of the
Lord.

We have now completed our review of the female characters
contained in the Fourth Period of Jewish History. Our readers
will, we think, universally agree, that it does not contain a single
passage, much less a single character or incident, which demon
strates the social, domestic, intellectual, and spiritual position
and endowments of women as enslaved and degraded. There
is not a hint or allusion to any second law opposed to the written
one of Moses ; for if there had been, the monarchy lasted
sufficiently long for it to have obtained such dominion as to
make manifest its existence.

That man's evil and licentious passions had increased to an
extent so fearful as to demand the captivity of the whole nation,
is no proof of the imperfection of the law, but only of the
imperfection of human nature. That the sins of the women
increased the burden of Israel's guilt we do not deny, because
the prophets so inform us. We merely affirm, that the social
condition of women had not degenerated — that there were no
laws then degrading and enslaving her : and, therefore, that as
there were none then, there can be none now, as we acknow
ledge no other law of sufficient power to annul or contradict
those given by the Eternal to Moses, and by him transmitted to
man.

This important fact is strongly confirmed by the fearta
wickedness of Jezebel and Athafiah. The former was the
daughter of a notorious idolatrous king, and the mother of
Athaliah, consequently we may indulge the comfort of the
belief that neither was of Israel, and that such awful crime*
•stained not the women whom the Lord so blessed. There is no

78 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

occasion to bring forward their histories, subjects from which
no good can be obtained, except that, in the creeping horror of
the evil and the sin to which woman can attain, the prayer for
help and strength, and freedom from temptation, may arise
more frequently from our hearts. The fact of their influence is
all we need, as confirming the assertion, that woman had both
power and freedom in the land. Ahab's natural wickedness
was fearfully increased, and made productive of still more hor
rible evil, by the counsels of his wife, as we must perceive by a
very casual glance over his history ; and of Athaliah we are
expressly told, when speaking of her husband Jehoram, " that
he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, for he had the
daughter of Ahab to wife, so he wrought that which was evil in
the eyes of the Lord" And, again, of her son Ahaziah, " he
also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother
was his counsellor to do wickedly." What can more forcibly
illustrate the power and influence which woman could obtain and
exercise in Judea ? Had there been any law confining them to
one particular sphere and debasing employments, not even the
idolatrous wives and mothers of the kings could have obtained
such ascendency. Nor was it only through kings, female
authority was exercised. Athaliah reigned six years sole mistress
of Judea ; and we may be certain, that however low the nation
had fallen, however the laws of Moses had sunk into neglect
and abuse, still, had there ever been any portion of this law
degrading to woman, Athaliah never would have had either the
means of making herself queen, or supporting so high a dignity,
even for the short space of six years.

The very fact, then, of there being such characters as Jezebel
and Athaliah, is unanswerable confirmation of the freedom and
equality of woman, because though they were not women of
Israel, their union with the Hebrew kings subjected them to
all the restrictions of the Mosaic law ; and had that law made
them slaves, they would not have exchanged their liberty in
their own idolatrous countries for conjugal thraldom in Judea,
the social and domestic position of the Hebrew females being
sufficiently well known to them, from the immediate vicinity of
the land, to prevent any misconception on a subject so important

And whilst we shudder at this picture of awful wickedness,
and feel inexpressibly thankful that our merciful God has
vouchsafed us a law, which, if obeyed, must effectually prevent

PERIOD IV. FEMALE INFLUENCE. <9

the dominion of such evil, let us not turn from it as an over
charged portrait, and believe that human nature is incapable of
such heinous crimes. Alas ! we have only to look into the
annals of modern history, and even amidst those very nations
who proclaim themselves so much more enlightened and
spiritual than the blinded Jew — aye, and within the last four
centuries we shall find women tempted to follow the same awful
path, and instigating husbands and sons to the commission of
crimes and massacres, from which the heart turns with loathing
sickness, and the vain longing to realize disbelief in the story
that it reads. And if so lately, comparatively speaking, such
things have been even in enlightened nations, can we continue
to think the Bible-picture of woman's depravity overcharged ?
Oh ! we know not, we cannot know, the awful effects of
jnlimited authority and unrestrained passions on the weak
human heart. We can only pray God to guard us from
positions in which feelings may be aroused of whose very exist
ence we dream not now ; to bind closer and closer still His
blessed law upon our hearts, His spirit on our souls ; to remove
from us all those evil inclinations and embryo passions which
His eye may trace, but of which we are unconscious ; to enable
us to cling closer and closer unto Him in prayer and praise ;
and we shall be guarded, as by an angel's wing, from every evil
thought and evil deed.

FIFTH PERIOD

CHAPTER I.

IHE CAPTIVITY. REVIEW OF CHAPTERS ONK

TO SEVEN OF THE BOOK OF EZRA. SUG
GESTIONS AS TO THE IDENTITY OF THK
AHASUERUS OF SCRIPTURE, AND DATE OF

HIS ROYAL FEASTS, & C . CHOICE OF

ESTHER.

A GREAT and melancholy change had taken place in the
condition of the Israelites. Their continued disobedience and
idolatry had, at length, called down upon them the long-averted
chastisement ; and in the land of their foemen were now their
mournful dwellings. The great armies of Nebuchadnezzar had
overrun Judea, and carrying off kings, priests, and people to
Babylon, left their beautiful land to desolation.

But even in their captivity, a captivity which their sinfulness
compelled, God had not forsaken them. All were not sinful,
all were no*; disobedient, though all alike were exiled, and cap
tives in a strange land. Even then the Lord raised up His
witnesses. The firm constancy of the youthful Daniel and his
companions, gave them examples of exalted righteousness in the
very midst of darkness. The glorious visions of Ezekiel, yet
more bold and sublime in imagery than the visions of any who
had gone before him, inspired them with hope for the Future,
and consolation for the Present ; while, when the period of
action came, such men as Ezra, Nehemiah, Zerubbabel, Haggai,
and other 3 equally earnest, were not found wanting in the fur
therance of their holy cause.

The condition of the exiled Hebrews appears more that of
colonists than slaves. Allowed to dwell together in large bodies,
they became at length possessed of considerable property ;* so

• Milman's History of the Jews, rol. Li. p. 4.

PERIOD V. THE CAPTIVITY. 81

:hat many of them refused to return to their own land, even
when the mandate of Cyrus gave them permission so to do.
It seemed a strange and painful contradiction, this refusal to
quit the land of their captivity, when, during that captivity, so
many had yearned and wept when they " remembered Zion."
Yet, that it was so, and that the return to Judea was by no
means general, is a convincing proof to us that the universal
restoration, of which every prophet speaks, is still to be
fulfilled.

The chronology, nay, the very personages of the events we
are about to regard, as identified with those flourishing at the
same period in Profane History, are so entangAd and confused,
that a clear elucidation is impossible. Not only do Jewish and
Christian chronologists differ as to national dates, but also
amongst themselves. Josephus, following the arrangement of
the Bible, places the History of Esther after the books of Ezra
and Nehemiah. In the Jewish calendar,* Esther's being made
queen and saving her people, takes place six years after Cyrus's
decree for the return of the Jews ; sixteen or eighteen before
the building of the second temple and the departure of Ezra ;
and thirty before the rebuilding of the walls by Nehemiah.
The chronology at the end of Bagster's Comprehensive Biblo
rather favors this opinion, — only differing in regard to the
departure of Ezra, which he states to have taken place only one
year after Esther's accession, five before Haman's plot, and
thirteen before the petition of Nehemiah. Milman, in his
history of the Jews, and Gleig, in his history of the Bible, again
differ ; the former agreeing with the authorities already quoted,
in placing the migration of the Jews under Ezra, after the acces
sion of Esther ; and the latter agreeing with Josephus in placing
him before it.

Now, in alluding to these differing authorities, let it be
remembered, that we do not interfere at all with the grand
question at issue between Jews and Christians, viz. the correct
data of the creation of the world ; the one placing it 3760, the
other 4004 before the Christian era.f The Jew has demonstra-

* By E. H. Lindo, Esq.

t Even these are disputed : The Samaritan Pentateuch asserts the
date of the creation to be 4700 B.C. ; the Septuagint, 5372 ; Scaliger
39.50 ; Petavius, 3984 : Dr. Hales, 5411 • the Talmudists, 5344 (?) &M
note to Bagater's Comprehensive Bible, p. 1339.

82 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

tion of his correctness quite sufficient to satisfy himself, and
prevent all adoption of the Christian supposition. All we wish
to do, is to make the book of Esther clearer as to time and
characters, and more connected with the books of Ezra and
Nehemiah than is generally supposed. As, on a very careful
consideration of the subject, both in itself, and in connexion
with Profane History, our own opinion differs from all the
authorities above mentioned, we will state it openly, as also our
reasons for holding it — not at all compelling others to adopt it,
nor as supposing it positively correct, but merely a suggestion
founded on a careful study of the time. To bring it clearly
forward, we must throw a cursory glance on the first six chapters
of the book of Ezra.

The first chapter contains the celebrated proclamation of
Cyrus ; who, we are expressly told, was " stirred up by the spirit
of the Lord," that is, the Lord put it into his heart to have
mercy on the Jews ; informing us also, that the heads of the
tribes of Judah and Benjamin, Priests and Levites, all whose
spirit " God had raised," gladly hastened their return, bearing
with them all the vessels of gold and silver of which Nebuchad
nezzar had spoiled the temple, but which Cyrus now restored.
In the second, we learn the number that return, their names,
substance, and offerings : in the third, the exertions of Jeshua,
Zerubbabel, and their brethren the high priests, in psparing
for the work of the temple, setting up first an altar on which to
offer the usual evening and morning burnt-offerings ; the cele
bration of the feast of the tabernacle, new moons, and all the
feasts of th3 Lord; in the second year of their return to Judea,
and in the second month, the solemn foundation of the temple
with shouting and with joy, mingled with the mourning of those
who yet remembered the first house of the Lord, " so that the
people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the
noise of the weeping of the people." In the fourth, we have
the painful hindrance of the building by the adversaries of the
Jews — their letter to Ahasuerus, king of Persia — and the royal
prohibition to continue the building of the temple, believing it
detrimental to the Persian power, by giving too much sway into
the hands of the Jews. The Ahasuerus of the sixth verse of this
fourth chapter is evidently Cambyses, son and successor of
Cyrus — not the Ahasuerus of the time of Esther. In Profane
History, we are lold that he di il not openly revoke the edict of

PERIOD V. REVIEW OF EZRA. 83

hie father Cyrus ; but greatly frustrated its execution, by many
annoyances levelled against the Jews. This underhand kind of
working is implied in the verse before us, which merely mentions
the writing to the king an accusation against the inhabitants of
Judah and Jerusalem.

The Artaxerxes of the next verse is not the same sovereign,
but the Smerdis of Profane History, the brother and successor
of Cambyses ; who, not satisfied with secretly frustrating the build
ing of the temple, openly revoked the decree of Cyrus, and sent
such letters to the adversaries of the Jews, as to make them " go
up in haste to Jerusalem, and the Jews, and made them to cease
by force and power." " Then ceased the work of the house of
God, which is in Jerusalem ; so it ceased until the second year
of the reign of Darius, king of Persia."

This tallies exactly with the dates and names of Profane
History. Smerdis, suspected to be an impostor, was dethroned
and murdered, and Darius Hystaspes elected in his room.

In the reign of Darius, we find, by the fifth chapter of Ezra,
the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Iddo, prophesying to the
Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem ; and, encouraged by
this manifestation that the spirit of the God of Israel was still
at work, Zerubbabel and Jeshua urged and helped the people
again to set forward the work, disregarding even the threatening
questions of Tatnai and Shethar-boznai ; and " the eye of their
God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they should not cease
till the matter came before Darius.'" A letter was consequently
written to the king by Tatnai and his companions, stating all that
had passed between them and the Jews, and concluding by
entreating the king to let search be made " whether indeed it
be so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king, to build this
house of God at Jerusalem, and let the king send his pleasure to
us concerning this matter." It is clear from the words of this
letter that some time had elapsed, and divers kings intervened
since the decree of Cyrus ; the tone is different to that in which
Bishlam, Mithredath, and others addressed Smerdis — more con
ciliating and inquiring — not the determined opposition of the
previous appeal. The letter, though written by their adversaries,
served the Jews as fully as if they had appealed to the king
themselves.

In the sixth chapter, we find that Darius did make the requi
site search for the decree, which was found, and so fully

84 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

cciifirmea the statement of the Jews, that Darius instantly pro
mulgated another decree, not only confirming that of Cyrus, but
commanding the adversaries of the Hebrews to let the work of
this house of God a'one, so that the Jews and their governors
might build it in the place appointed ; and to give them help in
forwarding the work, and in all that they needed for sacrifice,
etc. That he who hindered it should be hanged on timber
taken from his dwelling, and his house be made a dunghill ; " And
the God that hath caused His name to dwell there, destroy all
kings and people that shall put their hands to alter and destroy
this house of God, which is in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have made
a decree — let it be done with speed."

A decree peremptory as this was of course productive of good.
The building progressed rapidly : the elders being still more
encouraged by the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah : —
" And they builded and finished it according to the command
ment of the God of Israel, and according to the decree of Cyrus
and Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia," This Artaxerxes,
though not reigning at the time of the event here recorded, is
introduced by Ezra, the writer of the book, in compliment to the
favor he ever showed the Hebrews ; and this Artaxerxes it is,
who is, in all probability, the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther.

The remainder of the sixth chapter is devoted to the rejoicing
of the children of Israel, on occasion of the dedication of their
temple, the building of which was completed in the sixth year
of King Darius *8 reign ; their offerings ; the establishment of
their priests, "as it is written in the book of Moses ;" the solemn
celebration of the Passover " seven days with joy" — for they had
been purified from the filthiness of the heathen, and the " Lord
had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of
Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the
house of God, the God of Israel."

So concludes the sixth chapter of the book of Ezra ; and
between that and the seventh, a period of some years must have
elapsed. Darius reigned thirty-six years ; Xerxes, who succeeded
him, twelve ; and it was not till the seventh year of Artaxerxes,
consequently forty -nine after the completion of the building of
the temple, that Ezra obtained permission from the king to go
up to Jerusalem, armed with the royal repetition of the decree
in favor of the Hebrews, and the rebuilding of the city, already
promulgated by his predecessors Cyrus and Darius.

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 83

In this interval it appears, then, most probable that the events
^corded in the book of Esther took place. Whether we believe the
Ahasuerus so closely connected with her to be the tyrant Xerxes,
according to Milman's view of his character, or Artaxerxes
Longimanus, according to Josephus and other commentators ;
still the period of these events remains, unalterably, between the
sixth and seventh chapters of Ezra, as we have stated before.

According to the events of Profane History, a period of sixty-
three years must have elapsed between the decree of Cyrus tor
the return of the Jews, and the accession of Artaxerxes Longi-
rnanus. In the Jewish calendar we find only six. How this
disparity can ever be reconciled, we know not, and must leave
it to wiser heads than our own : suffice it, that the events nar
rated in the first six chapters of Ezra must have covered a longer
interval than six years ; but on such a subject our readers must
search and judge for themselves ; we offer no opinion to be adopt
ed as the right one, and will willingly and thankfully receive
any communication likely to elucidate this difficult point.

That the events of Esther took place after the decree of Cyrus,
is, however, a truth on which there can be no dispute ; and
whatever number of years may have elapsed since the permission
to return to Jerusalem, it is equally clear that an immense number
of the Hebrews yet remained scattered over the large dominions
of Ahasuerus, which we are told" extended from India, even unto
Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces,"
including, of course, Persia and Media.

Amongst these was a Jew of noble descent, Mordecai by
name, a Benjamite by tribe ; consequently, not one of the Ten
Tribes, but of the two who had faithfully adhered to the royal
house of Judah. In direct compliance with the law of Moses,
which had expressly commended the fatherless to the care of
their coi ntrymen, Mordecai had brought up, as his own child,
Esther, or Hadassah, the orphan daughter of his uncle, and
resided with her in an establishment according to his rank, in
" Shushan the palace ;" meaning the city which was the usi al
residence of the king.

In the third year of Ahasuerus, the city of Shushan was
thrown into a ferment of excitement, by the royal feasts given
alike to princes and nobles, and to all the people, and lasting
several months. The princes of the provinces were present; to
whom, we are told, in the scriptural record, all the riches of hii

36 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

glorious kingdom, and the honor of his excellent majesty, were
lavishly displayed. And this excitement was followed by
another; — the banishment of Queen Vashti from her royal
estate, and proclamation made throughout the provinces, that
all the fairest maidens were to be gathered together unto
Shushan the palace, from whom the king might select a queen,
in the place of Vashti. The extreme beauty of Esther, whose
very name, in Persian, signifies a star, of course attracted the
attention of the king's officers ; and she also " was brought unto
the king's house, to tLe custody of Hegai, the keeper of the
women."

That this distinction was more painful than pleasing, both to
Mordecai and Esther, we cannot for a moment doubt: the
former, whose unwavering faithfulness to his religion has marked
him amongst the most deserving and distinguished of our
ancestors, was not likely to have connived at a union for his
adopted child, which must prevent her strict adherence to her
father's faith. That Esther herself was equally repugnant, we
have the authority of the oldest Jewish writers ; if her prayer
ir. the Apocrypha be written by them. That the Apocrypha is
not divine, we are quite aware ; but as the writers of the Talmud
do not disdain to quote from the " Wisdom of Solomon," as a
good moral essay, not as divine, we may perhaps be permitted
to regard the remaining chapters of the book of Esther in the
same light ; as an enlargement or commentary on the Bible-
record of the same events ; — not that Mordecai and Esther really
did use the words of prayer which are there put into their
mouths ; but as a reflection of the opinions of our old writers on
die subject.

To resist, or refuse compliance, would of course have been
vain : and we find Esther winning such regard from Hegai,
that he showed her more kindness and respect than to any
other of her companions. Beauty alone could not have done
this : for to loveliness, in all its varieties, he had no doubt been
accustomed. But the cultivated intellect, the spiritual graces,
of the Hebrew woman, which so marked her superiority over
the females of every other nation, gave to the mere perishable
beauty of face and form, an interest and a charm unlike every
other ; and this it was which so powerfully attracted the
regard of Hegai, and, in due time, the devoted love of the
king.

PEF.IOD V. ESTHER. 87

Some time (probably two or three years) must have elapsed
oetween Esther's being taken from her adopted father's care,
and her public proclamation as queen. It was in the third year
of Ahasuerus that Vashti was dethroned ; and not till tho
seventh that Esther was raised to the royal dignity in her stead.
During this interval, " Esther had not showed her people, nor
her kindred ; for Mordecai had charged her that she should not
show it" — a charge which appears to us somewhat strange and
irreconcilable with the constancy and dignity evinced by
Mordecai, and at a time that, though captives in a strange land,
concealment of their peculiar tenets was not necessary for their
safety. But if this part of his conduct be incomprehensible, or,
at least, unsatisfactory, not so is the paternal affection which is
forcibly betrayed in the simple words, " And Mordecai walked
every day before the court of the women's house, to know how
Esther did, and what would become of her." His child was
removed from under his own eye, but his watchful love was with
her ; and Esther must have felt comforted in the consciousness
that he was near her — his thoughts and affections with her
still.

And could she need comfort, surrounded as she was with state
and luxury ? Alas ! these are not the ingredients of happiness.
Esther had been brought up with the greatest tenderness from
her earliest years ; from the situation of her people, perhaps,
educated with even more than usual care in her father's faith.
Her affections, habits, associations, all were confined to the house
of her childhood — the father of her love. Was it nothing, then,
to bo torn from all these by an imperious mandate, and, at a
moment's warning, debarred from the exercise of her faith,
compelled to worship only in her own young heart, with no
friend near to strengthen and to guide ? Even the very idea of
becoming queen, had she been one likely to be dazzled by so
nigh a dignity, must have been fraught with terror, when she
recollected the fate of her predecessor.

Thoughts like these were quite sufficient to have clouded the
heart and mind of Esther, and rendered the change in her
fcarthly lot more sad than joyous. But, from the favor she
-eceived, it is evident that she did not allow herself to murmur ;
the buoyancy of youth, too, was her own ; and the very respect
and regard which she received from Ilegai, must have strengthened

88 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

her, to continue the same course of meek submission and trusting
hope.

Her unambitious spirit and modest gentleness, we infer from
her asking nothing but what the chamberlain appointed. Yet
" the king loved Esther above all the women, and she found
grace and favor in his sight ;" and " he set the royal crown upon
her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti. Then the king
made a great feast unto all his princes, and his servants, even
Esther's feast ; and he made a release to the provinces, and gave
gifts, according to the state of the king."

This was in the seventh year of Ahasuerus, and it was in the
seventh of Artaxerxes that Ezra obtained permission to go up
from Babylon to Jerusalem, with a new decree, authorizing the
return of all the Jews who wished it, and granting greater
privileges to them, and more lavish gifts, than any king had yet
bestowed.

Now, if this Artaxerxes of Ezra be the Ahasuerus of Esther,
this event tallies exactly with the " release to the provinces, and
the gifts made according to the state of the king," of which we
have just read. Esther's parentage and faith were, indeed, not
yet disclosed ; therefore this favor to Ezra was not so much
owing to her influence, as to the gracious mood and munificent
rejoicings, with which the king greeted her accession as his
queen.

The very words of Ezra, " Blessed be the Lord God of our
Fathers, which hath put such a thing as this into the king's
heart, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem ;
and hath extended mercy unto me, before the king and his
counsellors, and before all the king's mighty princes !" imply
that his request was made, and permission accorded, during
some great public rejoicing, and in presence of all the king's
counsellors and mighty princes. And thus, it is in exact
agreement with the feasts and rejoicing which Ahasuerus gave
unto all his princes and servants, when Esther was acknowledged
queen.*

* We read in Ezra, that it was in the first month Ezra commenced
his journey, and the fifth when he arrived in Jerusalem, " which was ID
the seventh year of the king ;" and in Esther, that it was the tenth
month when Ahasuerus first made her queen, in the seventh year of his
feign, but this does not prove that Ezra's return to Jerusalem took plare

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 89

It was during the rejoicings attending the choice of Esther as
queen, that it appears most probable that Mordecai obtained
that situation in the royal household, which is implied by his*
sitting at the king's gate. What office it was, does not appear.
]3ut he evidently had not occupied it before ; preferring to
remain in dignified retirement, as enabling him more strictly to
attend to the ordinances and requirements of his faith. Affec
tion and anxiety for Esther, was without doubt the real
incentive to this change in his life. We have already read of
his walking every day before the court of the women's house to
know how she did, and what would become of her ; and his

before the events of Esther. We will endeavor to make our meaning
more distinct : — Queen Victoria, we all know, ascended the throne of
Kngland in 1837, on the 20th of June, which is, counting by the solar
mouths, the sixth month ; on the 20th June, 1843, therefore, she entered
the seventh year of her reign. In the tenth mouth, which is October,
1843, we read, an insurrection took place at Barcelona. In the first
month, coeval with January, 1844, the Spanish Cortes was dissolved ;
and in the fifth month, which was May, 1844, another revolution at
Barcelona. Now, all these events took place in the seventh year of
Queen Victoria's reign ; but the events of the first and of the fifth months,
occured after that of the tenth .- and in exactly the same manner,
Esther's accession as queen, and Ezra's migration, might both have taken
place in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, and yet the event of the tenth
month occur before that of the first and fifth. Tebeth was the tenth
month ; in the festive rejoicings which followed, lasting several weeks,
as was the custom of royal amusements, and in presence of the princer
and counsellors, Ezra made his request, encouraged by the release given
to ail the provinces. In Nisan, which is the first month, his preparations
being complefjd, and the Jews wishing to depart collected together, he
set off on his journey, and in the filth month, which is Air, he arrived in
Judea ; and still it might be all in the seventh year of Artaxerxes,
granting which is most probable, that that monarch ascended the throne
eLher in the sixth, seventh, or eighth month. This is of course differing
with the Jewish calendar, which makes seventeen years elapse between
Esther's being made queen and the departure of Ezra ; but then, who is
the Ahasuerus of Esther ? And who is the Artaxerxes of Ezra 1 They
cannot be the same persons. Josephus, again, makes Xerxes the
Artaxerxes under whom Ezra and Nehemiah go to Jerusalem, and
asserts that this migration took place before Esther: this appears not
only historically but scripturally incorrect. But to reconcile all the
differing opinions is impossible; we must leave it, as we have said
nefore, to our readers to judge for themselves, only stating that the
opinion we have advanced is founded on a careful research of both
tcriptural and ancient history, an examination of all the opposing points,
ana the adoption of that which appears most reconcilable with thf
aarrations of both Profane History and tho Word of God.

dO THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

seeking an office in the king's household, evidently preceded
from the same affectionate cause.

There is a dignity about Mordecai, in the simple fact of his
concealing his relationship with the petted and all-powerful
queen of Ahasuerus — in his pursuing, undisturbedly, the calm
and meditative tenor of a good man's way, which we cannot fail
both to reverence and admire. It was enough for him that he
was one of the chosen children of God ; what higher dignity
could he have ?

" Esther had not yet showed her kindred, nc r her people, as
Mordecai had charged her : for Esther did the commandment
of Mordecai, like as when she was brought up with him"
How eloquently illustrative of her sweet and gentle character !
She was of that tender age, when the mind and temper are
more liable to take the impression of things and characters
around them, than to remember and act upon the education
and impressions of earlier years. She had been two or three
years completely separated from personal intercourse with her
adopted father. She had received nothing but indulgence ;
was translated from a lowly and retired home to be the sole
possessor of a monarch's love, and the sharer of a mighty king
dom — surrounded by luxury and adulation : and yet, so
unchanged was her gentle mind and loving heart, that, in her
high estate, she did " the commandment of Mordecai, as she had
done in her childhood and her youth." The faith of her fathers
was the safeguard ; for strangers and heathens were around her :
the pleasures proffered were all tinctured with earth and time
In the spiritual, the deathless part of her nature, the youthful
Esther was alone. How perseveringly and religiously must
Mordecai have trained her infant years, that even in this utter
loneliness, she could yet have steadfastly trodden the one strait
path, and never wavered in her duty, either to her guardian or
her God.

So some few years passed on, the exact number we cannot
ascertain from the widely differing chronologists. During that
interval, a conspiracy had been formed against the king by two
of his chamberlains, which becoming known to Mordecai, he
imparted it to Esther, and by her it was " certified to the king
in Mordecai's name." Inquisition was made into the matter,
ana the facts being discovered, the plotters were hanged, and
the account written in the chronicles of the Persian kings.

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 01

The instrumentality of Mordecai appears, however, to have been
entirely forgotten, though doubtless Esther's influence increased.
Had he come forward himself with his important discovery, he
would, no doubt, have at once received the honors afterwards
bestowed ; but he heeded them not, and the whole aflair sank
into oblivion with regard to man, but not so in the Divine
economy of God.

CHAPTER II.
ESTHER (CONTINUED).

" AFTER these things," we are told in Scripture, which is a
term always signifying some lapse of time, the exaltation of
Haman took place. Raised, through the favor of the king,
above all the princes that were with him, the royal household
vied with each other in doing him reverence, such being the com
mand of the king ; but " Mordecai bowed not, nor did him
reverence." He who neither seeks nor cares for ambitious
advancement and earthly honors himself, acknowledges them
not in others. Haman, also, was an Agagite or Amalekite,
one of the idolatrous nations whose iniquities were such as to
demand the signal punishment of the Eternal — an enemy from
the first to His people : and, therefore, the very lace of Haman
would have been sufficient for Mordecai to refrain from noticing
him. But even had he been of different lineage, the law of the
Hebrews strictly prohibited all unseemly veneration to mere
mortal man, as unbefitting those whose adoration was to be paid
to God alone. We do not, therefore, at all agree _withMilman's
supposition, that it was merely because they were rivals in earthly
ambition, that Mordecai refused to do reverence to Haman. We
nave already seen that Mordecai had had opportunities enough
already to aggrandize himself, but had neglected them all ; and,
to fact, the word of God itself favors the inference, that his reason
for refusing to do Haman homage, simply was, because " he

92 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

(Mordecai) was a Jew." The servants of the king spake daily
to him, demanding, " Why transgressest thou the king's com
mandment ?" and seeing that he " hearkened not to them, they
told Hainan, to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand, for
he had told them that ho was a Jew" This was a bold and
fearless statement, exactly in accordance with the character of
Kloruecai as already displayed. He had made no show of his
religion^ when there was no necessity so to do ; but his freely
avowing it as his reason for refusing undue reverence to a
man, and an Amalekite, ought to convince us that his desiring
Esther to conceal her race and faith proceeded from no.unworthy
or cowardly motive — however we may fail to discover a satisfac
tory reason why he should have done so.

Haman, full of wrath that any one should dare hold him in
contempt — a wrath no doubt increased, when he heard that the
bold man who did so was a Jew — one of a despised and captive
people, determined on a signal revenge. That some connexion
existed between Mordecai and Esther, was, no doubt, secretly
suspected by him : to attack Mordecai alone, would therefore
avail him little, as he would be protected by the queen. The
destruction of the whole Jewish people, if he could but procure
che king's consent, might involve Esther (of whose influence he
was very probably jealous) as well as the hated Mordecai ; and
the mandate once gone forth, according to the laws of the Medes
and Persians, was, he knew, unalterable.

That nothing might fail him, he cast lots, according to the
superstition of his age and country, to discern what month would
be mc-?t favorable for his project. The lot, guided by a merci
ful Providence, who was permitting the temporary ascendency of
evil only to bring forth permanent good, fell on Adar, the last month
in the year. It was then Nisan, the first month, and therefore
twelve months intervened ; an interval doubtlessly hailed by
Hainan as allowing the entire destruction of the Jews, even of
those situated in the remotest province of the empire; but
which was in fact their salvation.

With consummate caution Haman proceeded. Working upon
the usual jealousy of the royal prerogative, he alluded to a certain
people, who, dispersed amongst all the king's provinces, followed
a worship and laws of their own ; that it was not to the king's
profit they should do so ; insinuating, no doubt, that they were
likely, from their disloyal practices, to turn others also from then

PERIOD V. ESTHER 93

allegiance and their gods : it would be wise, therefore, to have
them destroyed — and, that the king's coffers should not suffer,
the wily minister concluded his counsel, by a promise of paying
ten thousand talents of silver into the royal treasuries.

The instant accordance of Ahasiierus with this cruel counsel,
by giving into Hainan's hand his vroyal signet to do with the
people as seemed good to him, certainly more resembles the
character of the capricious Xerxes than the mild and benevolent
Artaxerxes Longimanus; but then, in the brief record of Scrip
ture, we can hardly know all the subtle counsels of a minister
already high in his master's favor. The noblest and best
monarchs have at one period or another been liable to be led by
evil ministers.*

Whoever the monarch, thus much is certain, the horrible
decree went forth over the vast domains of Ahasiierus, and con
sternation and mourning took possession of the hapless people,
who, men, women, and little children, the old and the young,
were condemned to be destroyed on the thirteenth day of the
twelfth month, and all their possessions to become the spoil of
their destroyers. Can we imagine a situation more appalling?
To know the fate impending — each day, each month to draw it
nearer — and yet to have no power either to resist or fly ; to feel
themselves hemmed in by destined murderers — men whom,
perchance, they were in the habit of meeting in terms of kindly
fellowship, turned into ruthless destroyers, simply from a
monarch's word ? Yet such was once the awful condition of the
Hebrew people ; and it was the Eternal's will, that by a woman s
instrumentality they should be saved.

" When Mordecai perceived all that was done, he rent his
clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the
midst :f the city, and cried with a loud and bitter cry ; and came
even before the king's gate : for none might enter clothed in
sackclof-h. And in every province, whithersoever the king's com
mandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among
the Jews, fasting, and weeping, and wailing ; and many lay in
sackcloth and ashes."

* We need but instance Isabella of Spain, who, one of the most noble,
most magnanimous, aye, and most humane, alike as a sovereign and a
woman, was yet persuaded into the expulsion of six hundred thousand of
ner innocent subjects, as an act, not of policy, for that was against it, 6ui
of religion.

94 THE WOMEF OF ISRAEL.

Then was the time, had Mordecai been other than we assert
he was, for h5m to have concealed his religion, not by his public
mourning to proclaim that he, too, was one of the doomed.
But such was not his conduct. When all was peace amongst
his people, he was content to remain in seclusion, to practise and
to love his faith, without obtruding it by outward appearance
of sanctity and holiness. Many of his brethren might, perhaps,
in secret, have condemned him as lukewarm to the interest of
his nation, or he would long before have made use of Esthers
influence for their peculiar benefit. They might, and probably
did, accuse him of scarcely belonging to them ; but, in the hour
of their affliction and danger, they learned differently. He was
in very truth among, and of them ; and the eyes of all turned
to him alone for help and guidance.

Esther, meanwhile, had continued in the retirement of the
king's pa-lace, still his best beloved wife ; yet retaining all the
affection for her adopted father which had characterized her
youth. That Mordecai was very closely connected with her
must have been generally suspected, else we should not find her
maids and her chamberlains coming hastily to inform her of his
strange proceeding ; but so ignorant were they of its cause, as
to excite in us the supposition that his religion, and that of
Esther, were still not publicly known. They merely mentioned
that Mordecai was clothed in sackcloth and ashes, as in deep
affliction, but made no allusion to the decree.

"Esther was exceedingly grieved; and she sent raiment
to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him :
but he received it not." Yet still he spoke not the cause of his
grief; and Esther, unable to follow the dictates of her own
heart, to go to him herself, sent Hatach again to him, with her
roval command, to know what it was, and why it was ; thus
blending the dignity of the queen with the affection of the child,
and compelling his reply.

Her silence at first might have proceeded from the momen
tary hesitation, as to whether or not he should involve Esther in
the danger of her people. Her race and faith were still unknown ;
why should he betray them at a time when their betraval threat
ened death ? The affection of a father might have struggled
with the feelings of the patriot : but ere Hatach returned his
decision was made ; and imparting the designs of Haman, and
the decree which had thence proceeded, he sent a copy of the writ-

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 95

mg to Esther, charging her to go in unto the king, and suppli
cate him for her people.

Far her people— the fatal words were said, and her race
revealed ; he could not withdraw them, and the decree from that
moment equally extended unto her, as to the humblest of her
brethren. How fearful must this intelligence have been to the
young queen ; and yet more fearful, if possible, the alternative
proposed. We see at once, that her feeling towards her hus
band was fear, not love ; by her shrinking from his presence,
unless expressly called. The favor with which she had been
regarded from the first, would, had she been a woman of a bold,
intriguing spirit, have given her such influence, as to obtain
access to°her husband whenever she willed it, regardless of all
laws to the contrary : but even the impending and wide-spread
ing danger could not conquer Esther's natural terror. It seemed
easier to let the decree proceed, and share the fate of her
people, than call down the monarch's wrath by intrusion into
his presence : and the very fear endears her to us, proving that
it was no unnaturally endowed heroine, but a very woman o<"
whom we read.

" Again Esther spake unto Hatach, and gave him command
ment unto Mordecai : All the king's servants, and the people
of the king's provinces, do know, that whosoever, whether man
or woman, shall come unto the king into the inner court, who is
not called, there is one law of his to put him to death, except
such to whom the king shall hold out his golden sceptre, that
he may live: but I have not been called into the king's
presence these thirty days :" probably an unusual lapse of time,
which, supposing a decrease of the royal favor, naturally
increased Esther's shrinking repugnance from the task pro
posed.

But Mordecai's plan was already fixed, and this answer was
instantly returned : " Think not to thyself that thou shalt
escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews. For if thou
altogether hold thy peace at this time, then shall enlargement
and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place ; but thou
and thy father's house shall be destroyed : for who knoweth
whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as
this?"

These last words give us the solution of Mordecai's confidence,
alike io the influence of Esther, and the eventual deliverance of

y6 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

the Jews. His heart, ever faithful to his fathers' God — evei
watchful to trace the superintending Providence which guarded
his people as the shepherd his flock, had solved, as by a flash of
light, the mystery before surrounding him* He knew now
why, in preference to every other maiden, his precious child had
been called to that high estate which he had mourned, as
uniting her with heathens, and dividing her seemingly for evei
from her people and her faitn. The Eternal, in His wisdom
and His mercy, had placed her there, that she might be the
chosen instrument, in His hand, for the preservation of His
people. Convinced of this, despondency and doubt passed from
the heart of Mordecai. He felt almost with a prophet's cer
tainty, that deliverance would come for his people ; and, there
fore, in words that sounded almost stern, in their total disregard
of woman's feelings, he called upon her to perform the part for
which she had been raised to the kingdom — to listen, not to the
voice of fear, but to arise and speak, else would she herself be
destroyed, aye, and her father's house (which included Mordecai
himself), and deliverance arise for her people from another
place.

It is evident that his confidence extended not to her, though
with meek subraissiveness she made no further resistance to her
guardian's will. There is a deep and mournful meaning, breath
ing through her gentle answer — a hopelessness, yet self-devotion,
which must twine her round our hearts, as one peculiarly
unfitted for the terrible ordeal.

u Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan,
and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night
or day : I also and my maidens will fast likewise ; and so will 1
go in unto the king, which is not according to the law : and if
I perish, I perish.'"

No undertaking, of whatever nature it might be, was ever
commenced by the Hebrew nation without earnest prayer and
fasting — not by the act of fasting to obtain favor in the sight of
the Merciful Being who has no pleasure in the affliction of His
creatures ; but by abstinence from all corporeal enjoyments to
give the spirit ascendency over the clay, and better enable us to
attain that perfect commune with our God, which, in periods oi
supplication, we so much need. Though in the Book of Esther
only fasting is named, yet evidently prayer is understood, for to
the Hebrews the first was wholly useless without the second ;

PERIOD V.— ESTHER. 9T

snd in the beautiful prayer written by the author of the remain-
in cr chapters of Esther in the Apocrypha, we read in what light
her character was regarded. We will transcribe it entire,
entreating our readers at the same time to remember, that we do
not regard it as inspired, and therefore as the actual prayer
used by Esther on the occasion, but simply as a proof of the
feeling 'with which she was considered by the ancient writers;
and that they too supposed with us, that her queenly state was
a matter far more of loathing and repugnance, than of pride and

joy-

" And she prayed unto the Lord God of Israel, saying, O my
Lord, thou only art our King. Help me, desolate woman, which
have no helper but Thee. For my danger is in mine hand.
From my youth up, I have heard in the tribe of my family,
that Thou, O Lord, tookest Israel from among all people, and
our fathers from all their predecessors, for a perpetual inherit
ance ; and Thou hast performed whatsoever Thou dost promise
them. And now we have sinned against Thee ; therefore hast
Thou given us into the hands of our enemies, because we wor
shipped their gods. O Lord, Thou art righteous. Nevertheless
it satisfieth them not that we are in bitter captivity ; but they
have stricken hands with their idols, that they will abolish the
thing that Thou with Thy mouth hast ordained, ani destroy
Thine inheritance, and stop the mouth of them that praise Thee,
and quench the glory of Thine house, and of Thine altar ; and
open the mouths of the heathen to set forth the praises of the
idols, and to magnify a fleshly king for ever. O Lord, give not
Thy sceptre unto them that be nothing; and let them not
laugh at our fate, but turn their device upon themselves ; and
make him an example that hath begun this against us.
Remember, 0 Lord, make Thyself known in time of our afflic
tion ; and give me boldness, 0 King of the nations, and Lord
of all power. Give me eloquent speech in m.y mouth before the
lion : turn his heart to hate him that fighteth against us, that
there may be an end of him, and all that are like-minded with
'aim. But deliver us with thine hand, and help me that am
desolate, which have no other help but Thee. Thou Jcnowest ail
things, 0 Lord ; Thou Jcnowest that I hate the glory of the
unrighteous, and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised and the
heathen. Thou knowest my necessity ; for I abhor the sign of
my high estate which is upon my head, in the days wherein I

98 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

show myself that I abhor it, and that I wear it not when I am
private by myself. And that thine handmaid hath not eaten at
Raman's table; and that I have not greatly esteemed the
king's feast, nor drunk the wine of drink-offerings. Neither had
thine handmaid any joy since the day I was brought hither to
the present, but in Thee, 0 Lord God of Abraham. O thou
Mighty God above all, hear the voice of the forlorn, and deliver
us out of the hands of the mischievous, and deliver me out of
my fear?

Well, indeed, must the writer of the above prayer have been
acquainted with the female heart, and consequently with all the
secret suffering which Esther's exaltation occasioned her indi
vidually. No thought of her own influence — no recollection
that the king loved her above all others, could give her
confidence sufficient in herself. Taught from her youth up to
recognise the God of Israel as the guardian of her fathers — as
the only Being who could come forward in their help — to Him
she looked alone — and she could look to Him with confidence ;
for in the years she had been compelled to hide her parentage,
she had sought Him as her only pleasure and only consolation.
She had worn her crown because it was His will ; but it was
but a weight and sadness ; for in her private hours it was ever
laid aside — she felt now, in her hour of intense supplication, the
full comfort of previous and intimate commune with her God, and
her trembling heart was strengthened.

Some natures could not have borne the delay of three days,
in the full anticipation of a trial ; they must have gone at once
to the king, or failed in power to go at all. Yet such natures,
in a mere casual view, would seem for stronger and bolder than
Esther's; and therefore demand and obtain greater admiration.
But it is the exquisitely feminine character of Esther that is to
me her peculiar and touching charm ; — it is the still under
current of deep feeling, which betrays itself throughout her
history, and which is so peculiarly woman's — the power of
uncomplaining endurance — the firm reliance on a higher and all-
merciful power for individual happiness — the absence of all trust
in her own gifts of beauty and eloquence, unless so blessed by
Him as to soften the heart of the king towards her — the courage,,
not natural, but acquired through prayer — the conquest of her
own weak tremblings, and venture of her own life, for the welfare
of her people — and this not the mere impulse of the moment,

PERIOD Y. ESTHER 99

but pondered on through three days incessant prayer : these arc.
traits which surclv must rivet our interest and our love.

CHAPTER III.
ESTHER (CONTINUED),

CLOTHED in unwonted gorgeousness, and radiant in hef
extraordinary beauty, but her heart, at that awful moment,
scarcely able to realize the holy strength and trust which prayer
had wrought, on the third day Esther stood in the dreaded
presence of the king : and though uncalled, and therefore
disobedient to the law of the Persian kings, God gave her grace
in the monarch's sight ; and, instead of displaying anger, he
held forth his sceptre towards her, and she drew near and
touched it in sign that she implored a boon. In the Apocrypha
we are told that faintness overpowered her, a natural portraiture
of feminine weakness, and depriving her at once of all those
attributes of a heroine, which would divide her from our sympathy
as a being differently endowed to ourselves. Prayer had given
her strength, else had she not thus stood uncalled before
Ahfsuerus ; but the mind, strong as it may be, cannot always
bear up its mortal shrine ; and by the description of the deadly
terror, depriving Esther of sense and speech, given by our ancient
fathers, we see at once the awful struggle she was enduring.

Her l)eauty, her very terror, all strongly excited the king's
affection ; and, hastening towards her, he soothingly exclaimed,
'* What wilt thou, Queen Esther, and what is thy request ? It
ahall be even given thee, to the half of the kingdom."

How blessedly must these words have fallen on Esther's still
quivering heart ! Yet, not at that moment dared she utter her
request, fearful lest its boldness and extent should change the
royal mood. She, therefore, merely besought him, "if it seem
good unto the king, let the king and Haman come this day

100 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

unto the banquet that I have prepared for him." The invitation
was accordingly transmitted to ITaman, and he and the king
went in unto the banquet which Esther had prepared.

It was a strange proceeding : this commencement— inviting
the deadly enemy of her people to her private banquet-
aggrandizing him as it were still more— rendering her own task
more fraught with danger — and filling the minds of her
countrymen with doubts as to the purity of her intentions
towards them. It has ever seemed to me that Esther's conduct,
with regard to the two invitations, before her boon was spoken,
proceeded not from previous design, but rather from impulse,
which she followed as supposing it the inward direction of the
Eternal ; but which, when accepted, startled even herself. But
to retract was impossible ; and the daughter of Israel, radiant
in her^loveliness, entertained the king and his prime minister at
her private table.

Again did the king reiterate his inquiry and his promise,
" What is thy petition ? and it shall be granted thee : and what
is thy request ? even to the half of my kingdom it shall be
performed." And again did Esther fail in the necessary courage
to give it words ; and, instead of her weighty boon, we find her
simply saying, " If I have found favor in the sight of the king,
and if it please the king to grant my petition, and perform my
request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall
prepare for them, and I will do to-morrow as the king hath said."

Her 3o/;cluding words betrayed that she had yet another
boon ; and her trembling spirit was probably reassured by
the graciousness with which the invitation was accepted.
Haman, too, left her presence rejoicing and triumphant.
Little could the wily plotter dream that the God of her people
' was with Esther, inspiring the words of her mouth ; ana
that this very exaltation was the forerunner of his fall. But
yet, in the very midst of his triumph, as he left the palace,
Mordecai, who still sate at the king's gate in his sackcloth,
stood not up, nor moved for him ; and Hainan's indignant
wrath caused the exclamation, that riches, prosperity, gratified
ambition, regal favors, all availed him nothing, so long as
he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate. To
disperse these gloomy thoughts, he entered eagerly into
the counsel of his wife and friends ; and a gallows 'waa
erected fifty cubits high, while his blackened mind revolved

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 103

some tale, the which to bring the king on the morrow, that his
consent might be obtained for the instant execution of the mau
he abhorred.

But that same night others also were wakeful. Surely
we may picture the young queen wrapt in earnest and
fervid prayer, still lor strength and grace for the pursuance
of her entreaty : was she not a weak and trembling woman,
whose only strength was PRAYER ? Thousands were destined tc
the destroyer ; if she held back, who would arise and save ? and
in that nightly vigil, when fear and doubt are so often magnifiee
and darkened, what could she rest on but her God ?

Nor was she the only wakeful one in the royal palace. Even
as she prayed, the Eternal answered ; and His guiding mercy
was at that very moment so ordering events as to prepare
the way for her successful petition. Unable to sleep, Ahasu-
erus, towards morning, commanded the chronicles of the
kingdom to be read before him ; and it so happened that
the roll opened on the conspiracy against himself, which Morde-
cai had discovered. Imparted to the king as it had been
by Esther, the names and minute particulars had passed
innoticed, more especially as Mordecai had always so shrunk
from public notice. But, read now from the records ol
the kingdom, the king's attention was irresistibly fixed ; and ho
demanded u What honor and dignity hath been done to Morde
cai fo.* this 2" — " Then said the king's servants that ministered
unto him, There is nothing done for him." The king, self-
reproached at the neglect, and determined not to expose
himself to forgetfulness again, inquired, " Who is in the
sourt ?" And on being told that Hainan stood without, com
manded his instant admittance. " What shall be done ?"
he asked, when the minister appeared, " unto the man whom
the king delighteth to honor 2" And puffed up by his inordi
nate pride and vanity, Hainan thought in his heart, " Who can
the king delight to honor more than myself?" and advised
a triumph, which would make him second only to the king.
But when, elated with his own description, and convinced
he was advising his own triumph, these words came — " Do
even so to Mordecai the Jew, who sitteth at the king's gate : let
nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken ;" — how can we
attempt to describe the fierce rage of vindictive passions which
must have taken possession of Hainan's heart 2 How attempt

102 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

to portray the black emotions with which the baffled plotter
must have walked beside the splendidly caparisoned charger, on
which, robed in the king's apparel, sat his detested rival ? And
no comfort waited him, when, mourning and enraged, he
sought his home. "If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews,"
they told him, " before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou
shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before
him," words which prove how forcibly the estimation in which
the Jews, as the chosen and beloved people of God, were held
by the nations around them, even by those who called them cap
tives.

But little time had Hainan to ponder on further schemes of
vengeance. " While they were yet talking with him, came the
king's chamberlains, and hasted to bring Haman to the banquet
which Esther had prepared." Again had the queen assembled
around her all of gorgeousness and festivity to gratify the luxu
rious taste of the Persian king. Her beauty, heightened by
successful adornment, concealing under the graceful courtesy of
the hostess the tremblings of the petitioner — fear probably
becoming more and more intense with every passing moment —
longing, yet fearing for the king to speak those words which
must impel reply. And at length they came, coupled as before
with the royal promise of fulfilment for whatever she might ask ;
and she, who had fainted from very terror when first in presence
of the king — who had felt so powerless to speak from the very
magnitude of her boon, now boldly and firmly answered : —

" If I have found favor in thy sight, O king, and if it please
the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people
at my request: for we are sold, I and my people, to be
destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold
for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although
the enemy could not countervail the king's damage." Few
manifestations of self-devotion are more touching and complete
than these simple words of Esther. We have seen and known
the extent of her human fears — she might have worded he)
petition as in no point to include herself, but she scorned it —
she might have been divided from her people in periods of
prosperity and peace, because such was the will of Mordecai ;
but not when danger and death threatened. Their fete should
be her own ; and fearlessly she included herself with them.
Whether or not Ahasuerus at once associated this people for

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 103

whom Esther implored, with those destined for death by the
machinations of his minister, we cannot determine ; but by his
instant question — " Who is he, and where is he, that durst
presume in his heart to do so ?" we are induced to suppose that
he did not, but imagined it simply some plot against the life
and immediate kindred of his queen — a supposition likely
enough to excite the fierce wrath, which, when his long-favored
minister, Hainan, was accused as the adversary and enemy,
caused him to leave the banquet in much disorder, and pace
the palace garden, endeavoring so to pacify his anovr, as calmly
to decide. Haman, meanwhile, had fallen in deadly terror and
agonized supplication on the couch, where, in accordance with
Persian fashion, Esther had reclined during the banquet — a
posture of apparent familiarity, rousing the monarch to yet
greater fury ; and guided by his gestures even more than his
words, the guards present seized Haman, and covered his face,
an Eastern custom existing still, and signifying that the criminal
is condemned to instant death. Harbonah, the chamberlain, at
the same moment came forward with the information of the
gallows prepared in Hainan's house for Mordecai, who had acted
so faithfully towards the king ; and Ahasuerus, still more
incensed, commanded him to hang Hainan thereon. The royal
command was instantly obeyed, and then only " was the king's
wrath pacified."

This summary mode of proceeding may seem strange to
modern notions and civilized customs ; but it is in exact accord
ance with the despotic government of the East, not only in a
time so long past, but even now, when the bowstring is the
instant executor of punishment. Trial, and witnesses for and
against ; the minute examination into facts, and the deliberate
sentence of judgment, are all utterly unknown to this day in the
East ; and, therefore, the instant chastisement of Haman in no
way marks the sovereign as the capricious tyrant, which, identi
fying him with Xerxes, some historians represent him. Egre-
giously deceived as he had been so long in his prime minister ;
who had dared, as he supposed, to compass the life of his dearly
beloved queen and her kindred, and who had secretly and vin
dictively prepared a gallows for the death of one who had saved
the king's life — all these circumstances were quite sufficient to
rouse an Eastern temper into such fury, as could only be calmed
by the death of the offender. Nor did the monarch stop here.

104 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

He gave unto Esther the whole house (probably the rich posse*
sions) of Hainan ; and then it was that the queen revealed hei
near relationship to Mordeeai, and her faith ; and Mordecai
came before the king, and received from his hand the ring, 01
signet, which Ahasuerus had taken from Hainan, as a symbol
that he was now prime minister in his enemy's place. " And
Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman."

But personal safety and aggrandizement were not the inten
tion of the noble Mordecai and his courageous child. Falling
prostrate at the feet of her husband, Esther besought him with
many tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite,
and his evil schemes against the Jews — imploring, " If it please
the king, and if I have found favor in his sight, and the thing
seem right before the king, and I be pleasing in his eyes, let It
be written to reverse the letters devised by Haman the Agagite,
which he wrote to destroy the Jews which are in all the king's
provinces : for how can I endure to see the evil that shall come
unto my people ? and how can I sndure to see the destruction
of my kindred ?"

She could not have framed ner petition in words more likely
to reach the heart of the sovereign, than by making the cause
of the Jews so completely her own. A mere entreaty for them
as a people unjustly sentenced to destruction, would not have
been thus successful ; but she identified them with HERSELF.
In their low estate — in their impending danger, she appealed
for them as her people, her immediate kindred, that life would
be joyless were they destroyed ; and her eloquent appeal was
granted, for her beauty, her gentleness, her very deference and
respect, had rendered her all-powerful with the king. Full
permission was given to her and Mordecai to write as it pleased
them ; " for the writing which is written in the king's name,
and sealed with the king's seal, might no man reverse." Scribes
were accordingly summoned in all haste — scribes who could
write in every language of the hundred and twenty-seven pro
vinces, to the lieutenants, and the deputies, and the rulers;
" Wherein the king granted -ihe Jews which were in every city
to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to
destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the
people and province that would assault them, little ones and
women, and to take the spoil of them for prey ;" and copies of
these writings were forwarded by riders on mules, camels, an»J

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 105

young dromedaries, being hastened and pressed on by the
king's commandment.

Vindictive as, in a mere super6cial view, this decree may
appear, it was imperative, for the Jews could be saved by no
other means ; the writing that was once written in the king's
name, and sealed with the king's ring, could never be reversed
— the laws of the Modes and Persians, once passed, were
unalterable, however unjust or tyrannical they might be.
Ahasuerus had commanded the entire destruction of the Jews ;
he could not annul that edict, and, consequently, was impelled
to grant Esther's entreaty, by issuing another, desiring the Jews
to defend themselves, even by the death of those who, in com
pliance with the previous decree, should assault them. A mode
of proceeding very repugnant to present notions, but which can
only be judged by the customs and laws of the past.

\Ve find in Josephus another reason for this destruction of
Ahasuerus's subjects. Alluding to some words in his letter to
the governor, Josephus says in a note, " These words give an
intimation, as if Artaxerxes suspected a deeper design in Hainan
than had openly appeared — that, knowing that the Jews would
be faithful to him, and that he could never transfer the crown
to his own family, who were of the posterity of Agag, the old
king of the Amalekites, while they were alive, and spread over
all the Persian dominions, he endeavored to destroy them. Nor
is it to me improbable, that those of the Jews' enemies who
were soon destroyed by the Jews, by permission of the king,
were Amalekites, their old and hereditary enemies (Exod. xvii.
14, 15); and that thereby was fulfilled Balaam's prophecy,
1 Amalek was the first of the nations, but his latter end shall be,
that he perish for ever' (Numb. xxiv. 20)." *

If this be well founded, it is a most agreeable solution to
what appears, on a superficial reading, such indiscriminate
slaughter on the part of the Jews. It was the fulfilment of
Divine prophecy on a race whose exceeding wickedness had for
BO many centuries marked them out as objects of the Eternal's
wrath ; and His people were but instruments in His hands,
instead of the fire or plague, with which, had it pleased Him,
their destruction would equally have been brought about. But
to return to Esther.

* Josephus, Book xi chap, vi note to p. 229 of second volume.

106 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

With what joy must she have beheld the termination of al
her fears and inward struggles in the salvation and glory of hei
people! Her beloved guardian, Mordecai, was now acknow
ledged and honored by prince and people, as his many years
of unpresuming worth deserved. " He went out from the pre
sence of the king in royal apparel of blue and white, with a
great crown of gold, and with a garment of fine linen and
purple : and the city of Shushan rejoiced and was glac1. The
Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honor. And m
every province, and in every city, wheresoever the king's com
mandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness,
a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land
became Jews ; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them."

And this, under the God of her people, was a WOMAN'S work
— wrought not by beauty, or power, or any of those arts which
but too often guide the female favorites of rnonarehs, but solely
by the STRENGTH of PRAYER. We have seen the tremblings of
her gentle woman heart — that she had entered on the plan,
with the conviction that she was risking her own life — that her
own death for intruding upon the sovereign's presence was
far more likely than the preservation of her people, else where
fore the words, " And if I perish, I perish." All this we have
seen ; and can we hesitate a moment in the belief, that strength,
eloquence, all she needed, were infused by the Hearer and
the Answerer of prayer — that they were not of herself? How
had .she commenced this terrible undertaking ? By three days
and nights passed in fasting and prayer, the long period proving
in itself the extent of her shrinking fears, the magnitude of the
task in which, simply in obedience to Mordecai, she had engaged ;
and when we remember how her work commenced, can we not
rest satisfied as to the how it concluded ? The sacred historian
passes on to more eventful matters, to more public and national
concerns; but we, lineal descendants of this fair and noble
Jewess, shall not we accompany her to the same retirement,
where she had fasted and prayed, and behold her again pros
trate, not now in agonized supplication, but in glorified, rejoicing
adoration 1 — tracing the hand of her God in all — hearing the
answer to her fervent prayer in the shouts of joy and triumph
which rose from the city without — in the honorable exaltation of
Mordecai — in the pure delicious feeling that she was no longer
lonely in her high estate ; the Guardian of her infancy, second

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 107

only to the king himself, would ever be beside her. Her faith
known, and still herself beloved ! Oh ! that in itself must have
removed a mountain of lead from her bounding heart. Hun
dreds, aye, thousands of her people were saved in one brief day
from death ; and she had done this, her words — hers — weak,
trembling woman as she was ! How might she bear the weight
Of j0y — the magnitude of the success ! heavy to humanity as
was the magnitude of the terror and the boon ; no heart, mould
ed as was hers, could have contained it, save in prostration
before Him whose sole work it was. The burden of joy, as the
burden of grief, must find vent before our Goo — must pour back
its gushing tide into the living fountain whence it sprang, or it
will crush the heart which holds it ; and can we doubt that these
were Esther's feelings, because we find them not in written
words ? Oh ! let every right-feeling woman look withm her own
heart, and place herself in Esther's position, from the very
beginning of her dreaded task to the completion, and then say
how could such joy be borne, save as we have pictured it, in
adoration of the Lord ?

We have only one more public mention of Esther in the book
bearing her name (except her writing to confirm the second letter
of Purim), and that mention, according to the opinions of some,
destroys the beauty of her character, and makes her appear in
a vindictive and unfeminine light. We, ourselves, once shrank
from the verse, and wished it had not had existence ; but a more
matured consideration removes the objection, and completely
exonerates Esther from the bloodthirsty vengeance with which
she has by some historians been charged. Even Milmar., usually
so just and moderate, speaks of the barbarous execution of the
ten sons of Haman as proceeding from her request, when in fact
they were already slain. Verses 12, 13, of the ninth chapter
of Esther, an: those to which we allude.

In the Jewish law, the gallows was 'not used as it is now.
The criminal was always executed first, either by stoning or
strangling, and only the dead body suspended upon it as a fur
ther mark of guilt and ignominy ; and also to deter others from
following the sinful example. Esther's request that Haman's ten
sons might be hanged on the gallows, had nothing whatever to do
with a vindictive desire of vengeance upon them for their father's
gin. They had been already slain amongst the enemies of the
Jews in Sushan ; slain most probably in their own assault, fof

108 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the Jews were not to attack, but merely to defend. " Thej
gathered together, we are told, to lay hand on those that soughi
their hurt" And the governors and rulers, lieutenants and
deputies of the king, all helped the Jews. Consequently those
who assaulted them were their determined and hereditary foes,
resolved, from the great hatred they bore them, to act on the
king's first edict, even if the second should cost them their
lives. Amongst these, of course, were Hainan's sons, who,
Arnalekites and Agagites like their father, were the Jews' most
deadly foes ; and the foremost in, assault, falling in strife, and
stricken by the God whom their iniquities had profaned,
through the swords of His people. The 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th
verses of this same chapter (the ninth), specify them by name,
amongst the slain, which is confirmed by the words of Ahasuerus
himself in the 12th verse, " The Jews have destroyed five hun
dred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman"
etc. And that Esther should have made her request, that her
people should do on the morrow as they had done the preced
ing dny — and that Hainan's ten sons should be handed upon
the gallows, proceeded from no unfeminine or vindictive feeling ;
but simply from the wish that the future safety of the Hebrews
should be fully secured. As an individual, and judging by her
previous truly feminine character, Esther would, without doubt,
have shrunk from the awful retribution which the plot against
the Jews had wrought. But she was denied the privilege of
thus judging and thus acting: on her depended the present
nonor and future security of a people, liable to be trodden under
foot at every capricious change in the mood of their captors ; not
alone in her own time, but years after. Guided most probably
by the counsels of Mordecai, Esther was compelled to resort to
those measures, which were likely to deter their enemies from
future attacks. The ignominious exposure of the dead bodies
on the gallows — sorib of the onetime mighty and all-powerful,
all-ambitious Haman — would bring more forcibly than aught
else to the minds of men, the palpable evidence, that the Most
High God still watched over His people, and turned every evil
thought against them to the evil and the ruin of their connivers.
And the request of the second day's defence is but a proof
that the deadly haters of the Jews were not yet subdued,
but were likely to spring up again more inveterate than before.
Esther's words are, "Let it be granted to the Jews to do

PERIOD V. ESTHER. lU9

to-morrow according unto this day's decree ; and that decree was
to defend, Dot to revenge — to protect themselves against the
assaults which by the previous edict would be made ; not tc
flay and cause to perish, and take the spoil, as had been deter
mined against them. Esther, therefore, issued no order of blood
and vengeance, of which she is sometimes accused, nor were
the Jews guided by any feeling but that of self-defence ; else we
should not read, more than once repeated, that even in the homes
of their deadliest foes, and with the royal decree to appropriate
all to themselves — " On the spoil laid they not their hand"
Not in Shushan alone, but in every province and every city
where they gathered together and stood for their lives — where
the richest and most tempting spoils must have offered them
selves to their very grasp — still "on the prey laid they not their
hand:1

Was this a war of revenge, of national aggrandizeme: t ?
What could have prevented, had they so desired, the entire
subjection of the whole Persian kingdom ? What people, save
the people of God, in those dark times, would have been satisfied
merely to stand on their own defence, goaded, as they must
have been, by the entire destruction and inveterate enmity
working against themselves ? But the wars of the Jews were
never, from the first of their selection as the Eternal's chosen,
actuated by either ambition or revenge.

A reference to our first volume (Chap. III. of the Third Period)
will give the causes and intention of their first wars, the
reduction of the Holy Land, not for personal aggrandizement,
but in direct obedience to the direct command of the Eternal.
In loot ing further on, through all the different phases of Jewish
history, we find no mention of wars undertaken for aggrandize
ment or private revenge. Their wars were always defensive ;
and, though richly gifted with all the noble and heroic qualities
necessary to warriors and heroes, they were nationally a peaceful
and pastoral people, satisfied with the lands assigned them, and
with becoming wealthy through the direct blessing of their God.
We never read, as is so often the case in the histories of
contemporary nations, of acts of private revenge, or public
dispute settled by the sword. No personal appropriations of
acquired spoil — no inroads from one tribe to another, as, even
in modern times, is so often the case with nations who are
divided into clans 01 bodies. Whatever wars are read of, ai

110 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

undertaken by the Hebrews, are either by the direct command
of their heavenly King, or in their own defence.

Glancing, then, back on the Bible history regarded in this
light, from the selection of Abraham to the time of Esther, we
cannot find one incident or trait to justify the idea, that the
slaughter of Ahasuerus's subjects proceeded from any revengeful
or vindictive motive, but was simply in self-defence. We cannot
draw any inference contrary to the supposition, that it was the
Eternal Himself who ordained and permitted this destruction,
not alone because of their designs against His people, but
because they were the descendants of a most sinful race, and
inheritors and promulgators of iniquities and abomihations which
the God of Truth and Love abhorred, and for which he had,
from the very first, sentenced them to chastisement and wrath.

Looking upon it in this light, all over-refined notions nust
pass away. It is idle, in such an incident as this, to condemn
our noble Ancestress as vindictive and revengeful, because her
request shocks our individually sensitive notions. ' We must
take a wide grasp of the whole character and bearing, not of
Esther alone, nor of the Jews in Persia alone ; but of the general
character of the nation in the past, and how their present
danger was likely to affect them in the future. We must
recollect that they were still captives — still liable to persecution
and intolerance — to be attacked and slaughtered, at the very
first caprice of the despotic rnonarchs under whom they
lived.

Even as Ahasuerus had been persuaded by the specious
reasoning of a favorite minister, so might be other monarchs. It
was therefore the special care of Mordecai and Esther to adopt
every means for the future security of their people, not alone for
their present safety ; and in that barbarous age, and still more
barbarous people, no measures were so likely to be efficient, as
the public degradation of Raman's family, and the noble stand
made by the Hebrews against their idolatrous oppressors. The
Jews had probably been considered a poor-spirited, unnerved
people, likely to bend beneath oppression, and to be easily
subdued. Their spirited defence, however, taught their adversa
ries a very different lesson ; not only that the God of Israel was
with them still, but that they possessed within themselves all the
attributes of an heroic nation, who would never fail in the
assertion and protection of their rights ; and who, were th«

PERIOD V. ESTHER 111

necessary liberty of action allowed them, would never tamely
submit to the insults and oppression which they had endured.

In reading and reflecting over this history, Jet us never
forget the important truth so often repeated, that " on the spoil
the Jews laid not their hand," because this one brief sentence is
sufficient to convince us, that no revengeful or rapacious feelings
actuated our ancestors. In the edict issued against themselves,
not only their lives were to be destroyed without any regard to
age, infancy, or sex, but their possessions were to have been
confiscated to the king's treasury— they were to be spoiled as
well as slain ; and they might have retaliated. All which had
been decreed against them, they were at perfect liberty to have
turned upon their foes ; but they scorned it. The same spirit
which caused Abraham to refuse the gifts of Melchizedek, lest
he should say, " I have made Abraham rich," actuated them to
touch not one item of the vast stores, which, from the awful amount
of slaughter, might have been their own. Accused as we have
so often been of love of gold above all other love — of seeking,
by honorable or dishonorable means, to increase our worldly
tttores — of grasping and rapacious dispositions — let us point to
this simple line, " On the spoil laid they not their hand ;" and
the charge is at once proved false ! Let us look back on this —
on a hundred other similar traits in our history — and our
national character will stand forward as free from such igno
minious stain as any other nation in the world. What, if our
modern history seem to contradict this, and the sneerer and the
scofYer point to the usurers of the middle ages, and, dilating on
their wealth, their rapacity (so called), their grasping minds and
hardened hearts in s;ch opprobrious colors portray the Jew?
What, if the} do this ? They prove nothing — nothing to tarnish
the national character of the Hebrew, as proved in the
momentous records of the past, and confirmed by their giving
up all of wealth and greatness, rather than their religion, in
their expulsion from Spain, — but much, much against themselves,
in the fearful effects of persecution and intolerance, which they
have hurled upon the people of the Lord.

The Book of Esther concludes with the establishment of tho
festival of Purim, which, observed as it is by every class and
every denomination of the Jews throughout the world to the
present day, is in itself a convincing evidence of the perfect truth
of the whole history. The 14th and 15th days of Adar were

112 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

ordained to be " remembered and kept throughout every gene
ration, every family, every province, and every city; that thes«
days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the
memorial of them perish from their seed. Then Esther the
queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote
with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim." And
from that time it has been observed by every man, woman, or
child, bearing the honored name of Jew. Its ordinance and
confirmation is the last mention which we have of Esther by
name ; and, therefore, her after influence with respect to the
favor shown her people can only be conjecture- Yet if the
Ahasuerus of Esther be indeed Artaxerxes Longimanus, the
Artaxerxes of Ezra and Nehemiah, surely we may be justified in
the theory (which we acknowledge to be a favorite one), that
the ready granting of Nehemiah's petition, and the subsequent
favorable edicts issued for Jerusalem and the Jews, originated in
the love borne by Artaxerxes for his lovely Jewish queen. We
are told that Mordecai the Jew was next unto King Ahasuerus,
and great amongst the Jews, and accepted by the multitude of
his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking
peace to all his seed." He no longer refused a situation of
dignity and trust, because it was bestowed upon him as a Jew.
lie had no need either to deny or conceal the religion of his
forefathers. He had been chosen to succeed Ilaman in dignity
and favor with the king, because he was of Esther's kindred°and
Esther's faith ; and, his duty marked out for him, as his pious
rnind must have felt, by God Himself, it would have been but
mock modesty to have shrunk from the high estate and honors
with which its performance was associated.

The lofty beauty and retiring dignity of his previous charac
ter are not yet, in the smallest degree, infringed by his
acceptance of the office proffered. The welfare of his people was
ever the uppermost in his thoughts ; and if he could serve them
better in public than in private life, he would not shrink from
the notoriety attendant on his doing so. We read, " that he
was accepted by the multitude of his brethren," meaning that
they regarded him with the same deep love and reverence which
they had felt towards him in his low estate. No envy, nono of
those bitter feelings so often excited towards greatness, could
actuate them towards him ; for he sought " but the prosperity
of his people, the peace of all his seed."

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 113

If Mordecai retained so much influence, years after the events
» lich had occasioned his accession to greatness had faded into
t\ 9 past, it is not likely that Esther retained less. Her public
a? d private positions must both have been very much happier
tl an before. Her influence over the heart of her lordly husband
hi d been acknowledged, by a concession, which, in a Persian
E iperor, was as unprecedented as it was extraordinary. That
it either created or heightened love towards him, we cannot
d< abt, for it is not in woman's nature to receive such manifesta-
tk :is of kindness and forbearance, without giving some warmth
in return. Besides, he knew her faith, her race, and yet he
co itinued, nay increased, his favor towards her : thus proving
foi cpveness of her previous silence on that important point. The
beloved guardian of her youth was ever near her, second ii?
rai,k to the king himself ; her people honored and protected;
and many who had before been heathens, embracing the cove
nant of the Lord, and swelling the Hebrew ranks ; and all this,
under the blessing of the Eternal, had been achieved by her
conquest over herself, and her influence with the king. AVas it
likely, with such memories, that Esther would sink into a mere
nonentity in the Persian Court ? That she would not, even as
Mordecai, use all her influence for that holy people to whom her
whole heart still clung 1 And when we think attentively over
all this, her character, her eventful history, her power over her
husband, may we not, in some degree, be justified in the suppo
sition, that the Artaxerxes who permitted the departure of his
favorite Jewish cup-bearer, Nehemiah, and gave him letters to
the keepers of the king's forests, and to the governors, &c., in
furtherance of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and to insure the
safety of the Jews in Judea, was the same monarch, who, under
the name of Ahasuerus, had already so favored them in Persia?

The very fact of Nehemiah, a Jew, being the chosen cup
bearer to the king, and evidently in such high favor that the
sadness of his countenance attracted even his royal master's
notice ; the remarkable coincidence that the king's court was
Still in Shushan the Palace, the very scene of Esther's request,
and the favorite residence of Ahasuerus, when every other notice
of the kings of Persia placed them in Babylon ; the particulars
mentioned, by Nehemiah, of the queen being by the king's aide,
when the petition was made ; all confirms the above supposition,
and gives rather a solid foundation to the conjecture of Esther's

114 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

influence forwarding the suit of Nehemiah, which we have with
all humility advanced.

The character of Esther, as an individual and a female, pos
sesses many traits to call for admiration and love. She was not,
indeed, a heroine ; nor do we perceive in her that peculiar
energy and promptness under danger and trial which we have
noticed In the characters of Abigail and the ShunaLnmite ; but
the very want of this quality is consoling, proving, as it does,
that the most timid, the most essentially feminine, may be per
mitted to accomplish great ends, and become instruments in the
Eternal's hand for the welfare of His people. Energy of purpose
and of action, though essentially woman's attribute, is yet a por
tion only for the few. There are more to resemble Esther than
Abigail ; and to those that are timid and fearful, and shrinking
from an imperative duty, or some imposed task, — who would
rather remain in sad quiescence than make one effort to conquer
an imagined destiny — to them — we would point the consoling
moral of Esther's history, and beseech them, like her, to arm
themselves with the arrows of fervent prayer, in the very face of
inward tremblings and a failing frame, and to go forth and do,
and leave in kinder hands the rest.

Esther's quiescence and obedience to her destiny was neces
sity. Chosen as the bride of a heathen monarch, desired by
Mordecai not to show her people or her kindred, debarred from
all her friends, and pleasures of her earlier and happier years, it
was her duty to submit patiently and calmly ; and her gentle
and enduring character enabled her to do so less sufferingly
than more energetic minds. But we see that to endure was less
painful to her than to act, by her repugnance to go forward wh^n
the call of d ity came. Her spirit, instead of being roused by
the extreme emergency of the case, shrank back appalled : and
to brave the king's anger, by venturing uncalled into his pre
sence, seemed far more terrible than the danger threatening
thousands. To share their fate appeared easier far than to court
it; and even when, in obedience to Mordecai, she promised to
seek the king, it is very evident that her anticipation was failure
— and death. Had Abigail or Deborah been in her place,
their different characters would scarcely have required even the
direction of Mordecai ; their own energy would have urged
them forward, an 1 supported them 6y the inward promise of
iuccess.

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 115

But that Esther did not naturally possess this strength and
firmness, renders her conduct yet more worthy of our grateful
admiration. We see her displayed before us, in her woman's
weakness, as, indeed, one of ourselves. We behold her in not
one point, except in her surpassing loveliness, our superior;
nay, to bring her closer to us still, she is a captive in a strange
land, even as we are now ; and yet was she, this weak trem
bling girl, the savior, the benefactor of thousands ; and her
name has come down through thousand ages, wreathed with
the admiring love of that very people whose ancestors she
uaved.

To do as she did, to be exposed to the same awful ordeal —
of a monarch's wrath, or a people's preservation — is, indeed, not
ours ; and we should be grateful that it is not ; but how often
will the annals of private life demand as mighty a conquest of
self in woman ! How often are we called upon to subdue, or, at
least, entirely to disregard natural weakness and disinclination,
and go forward, when we feel so wholly incapacitated from the
task proposed, that we would more gladly sit down, and let the
waves of care and sorrow roll over us, than make one effort to
stem the rushing torrent, and make evident the supremacy of
MIND over CIRCUMSTANCE, of the WILL over EVENTS ! There are
trials and exertions in private life demanding such courage and
firmness to meet, that we often feel as if the frame must sink
under them ; but still, like Esther, let us go forward, feeling it
may be with her, " if I perish, I perish," rather than draw back
from the path of duty. Life and death are not with us, but
with the Lord ; and, in His hands, how often does anticipated
death become rejoicing life ; and the thunder-clouds, which we
feared to meet, dissolve, when boldly fronted, into sunshine and
bliss. Suffer, indeed, we may and must. Even the approval
of conscience — the conviction that what we do is undoubtedly
right, and a blessing will spring from it — will not shield us
either from inward trembling or mental pain. Physical weak
ness itself will cloud and blacken our mental vision. The blood
disturbed by unusual exertion will flow unequally ; sometimes so
sluggishly, that further efforts appear impossible, and mind and
heart both feel stagnant ; sometimes so wildly and hotly, that
the whole frame feels one mass of nerve and irritation and ill-
temper, even towards those we most love, impossible to be.
avoided. The very comfort, even the power of Prayer, is gona

116 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

from us. But, in such times (for they must come), let m
only remember that we are suffering physically, and nerve our
minds to bear them ; even as we would some bodily pain, or
sickness, the source of which is so much more easy to be traced.
Let us not shrink back, because we feel as if we were doing
nothing ; as if our former fears told us right, and we are
too weak, in constitution and in mind, to be anything but a bur-
len, and had, therefore, better sit down, and endure, instead of
rising up to act.

Had Esther, when, overcome with natural terror, she fainted
in the presence of Ahasuerus, given up her purpose, because she
felt so utterly incapacitated, both mentally and physically, from
pursuing it — her people would have perished, and she iaerself
have been either swallowed up in the universal destruction, or
sunk into a mere soulless, spiritless nonentity ; her whole life
embittered by the consciousness of what she might have done,
and what she did not do. But we have seen that she did
not draw back, though the stoppage of every pulse, from pure
terror, evinces the struggle with natural feeling, — which it
was.

We do not find her deploring her constitutional timidity and
wishing she possessed the energy of others. No ; the fount of
living waters, whence Esther derived the strength and determi
nation which she so much needed, to go forward, is open to us
all. It was incessant and most fervent PRAYER. The God of
compassion and love, who hearkened unto her, is still our God
— and will grant us the same strength and firmness for our indi
vidual duties which He vouchsafed to her. Let us not suppose,
for a single instant, that only in great emergencies He hears
us. Esther prayed to Him, and conjured others to pray for her
to Him, in this danger, only because she had known the efficacy
of prayer in little things. " Neither had thine handmaid any
joy since the day that I was brought hither, to this present, save
in thee, 0 Lord God of Israel !" She had been accustomed
from her youth upwards to look on Him, and pray to Him, as
the Saviour and Father of her people and of herself; and,
therefore, she knew and felt that now, in this great danger, and
most repugnantly-accepted task, prayer only could be her
strength.

And, without this infused strength, oh, what is woman ! — a
reed, liable to be turned by every passing wind, or crushed

PERIOD V. ESTHER. 117

before the slightest storm ; to bend to the soiling earth, and,
clogged with the particles of dust and taint, which, in its
orostration, will cling to and deaden it, find it a weary, if not a
hopeless task, to lift up its drooping head towards the pure
heavens again.

But let us not imagine, because mentally and physically we
are weaker than others of our sex ; because we have, no energy,
no firmness, no self-support (if we may be allowed the term),
that we are to pass uselessly and wearily and despondinglv
through life — that the Bible gives no sympathy :r encourage
ment to such as we — and, therefore, that nothing is expected
from us ! Nothing can be, when we are so different, so much
weaker than our fellows. Alas ! alas ! for those who hug them
selves in such comfortable belief ; and when the day of reckon
ing comes, behold what they might have done — behold it, and
in the agony of remorse, yearn to do it, and yearn in vain !
How know we, but our punishment after death may be to look
on all which in life we have neglected ; to awaken, as by a
flash from Heaven, to its awful consequences ; and to know no
rest, no sleep, in the wild yearning to perform it, and to feel we
have no more the necessary power — and this through wearv,
weary time, which in Heaven has no measure, in eternity no end !
Tt is an awful thought ; one it would be well to ponder on ere
it be too late.

That the Bible does give both sympathy and encouragement,
even to the most constitutionally weak, is proved by the sweet,
gentle, feminine character of Esther. Strength of herself,
indeed, she had none ; but it was asked, and granted ; and so it
will be unto all.

To the women of every faith, race, and land, then, her history
is alike instructive and inexpressibly consoling ; but it is in the
hearts of her descendants, the women of Israel, she should be
most closely shrined. By us, the festival of Purim should be
hailed as something more than a mere rejoicing season, or even
as the anniversary of a great redemption. Every woman should
take it to her own heart, and remember, with holy joy and
thankfulness, that the preservation of her people, which that day
recalls, was, under the Eternal, the work of a woman not stronger,
Hot more gifted than herself. God might equally have worked
by other means ; but that He did choose so weak and frail an
instrument, is right, indeed, to be a source alike of consolation

118 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

and rejoicing unto ns ; and strengthen each and all of us in
the hope that we, too, may become instruments in His hands
for good.

It was not that Esther was a free agent, or had powers more
extended than our own. Though the wife of a mighty monarch,
she was captive ; and so too are we.

We, too, may individually be thrown into positions begirt
with sadness, where the rites and ceremonies of our faith must
be adhered to in the secresy of . our own hearths and hearts.
Yet may we still be ready at the first call to identify ourselves
with those who suffer for our faith — still be enabled to serve the
good and holy cause. And those unshackled by peculiar posi
tions, following so publicly and unquestioned the religion of
Moses, that they are likely to forget they are the Lord's
captives, because man makes them his equal — to whom life is
such a quiet routine of uninterrupted employment, that the
idea of individuals serving our nation is regarded as a tissue of
fully and romance : yet even these can serve the cause of the
Jews. We can, each and all, determine to honor our religion
ourselves, and so make it honored. We can infuse such seeds
into the hearts of our sons, that Judaism may never want
defenders, or such representatives as will raise it, even in its
3aptive state, in the respect and consideration of the nations
Yes ! though through the infinite mercy of the Eternal, sucb
intercession as Esther's is no longer needed, still let us emu
late Esther in the elevation and the acknowledgment of oui
holy faith — in our individual adherence to its spirit and form
through every difficulty and through every woe. Let every
returning festival of Purim find us as women, and in our own
retired spheres, still loving, still knowing, still working for our
holy religion, and determined, through social and domestic con
duct, to make its glory, and its comfort, and its beauty, evident
to all. We shall not see the fruit of this still and silent work
ing ; but we shall feel its efficacy in the calm and tranquil glad
ness of our hearts and homes

PJ3RIOD V. EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 119

CHAPTER IV.

REVIEW OF THE EVENTS NARRA1ED BY
EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.

BEFORE we conclude this Fifth Period of our subject, we
must take a brief review of the condition of our ancestors con
temporary with the captives of Babylon ; but who, under Ezra
and Nehemiah, had returned to Jerusalem. The first captivity
caused a complete revolution in the history of the Jews. Their
very characteristics as a people, and as individuals, appeared to
have undergone a change.

Adversity and captivity retained the Ilebrews in that faith,
and those forms, which in their prosperity they had neglected
and despised. Men arose from their ranks, gifted with such
power as to lead the multitude as with a silken thread — to sever
even the strongest and most endearing ties, because such was
the word of the Lord, such the law He had ordained. Mar
riages with the heathen were not alone again forbidden, but
actually dissolved. The Sabbath-day, cleansed from the profane
employments of buying and selling which had before desecrated
it, commanded to be kept holy ; an ordinance established amonorst
the priests, " to charge themselves yearly with a half shekel for the
service of the house of God, for the shew-bread, and the continual
meat-offering, and the burnt-offering of the sabbaths and the new
moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin-
offerings, to make atonement for Israel, and for all the work of
the house of our God ;" a covenant, entered into under " a curse
and an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses,
the servant of God ; and to observe and to do all the com
mandments of the Lord our God, and His judgments and His
statutes."

Nor was this solemn covenant entered into by the males of

Israel alone. Their wives and their daughters are distinctly and

emphatically named (see Nehemiah x. 28), as amongst those

who had voluntarily separated themselves from the people of

17

120 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the land unto the law of their God, " every one having knowledge
and understanding." And in chap, viii., which so impressively
and affectingly describes the reading of the law by Ezra,
in the presence of the whole congregation of Israel, the women
are also expressly mentioned. " And Ezra the priest brought
the law before the congregation both of men and women, and
all tnat could hear with understanding," etc. " And he read
therein before the street that was before the water gate from the
morning until midday, before the men and women, aad those
that could understand ; and the ears of all the people wero
attentive unto the words of the law."

The scene must indeed have been of mournful interest. The
temple was still unbuilt ; the city, by far the greater part, in
ruins. On a pulpit of wood, with the sad memorials of Judah's
departed glory all around him, stood Ezra, probably now an
aged man ; for it was some years since he had left Babylon.
On his right and left hand were thronged his brother Levites,
who, voluntarily consecrated to the service of their God, lent a
dignity and solemnity to the proceedings, reminding the populace
of those days when they officiated in the Temple, and the glory
of the Lord was visibly revealed. Below them, fur as the eye
could reach, the people had gathered themselves as one man,
ardent and earnest to hear once more the words of the Most
High God. Men and women indiscriminately blended, for the
law appealed to both, and not then had the blighting words
been whispered, that woman has no power to seek and know
the Lord — that the study and comprehension of the law are for
man, not her. We see her hastening, even as man, to listen to
the words of her God — to accept with the whole fervor of her
ardent heart, His covenant ; and she is welcomed, not rebuked.

" And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people
(for he was above them) ; and when he opened it, all the people
stood up ; and Ezra' blessed the Lord, the great God. ^ And all
the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands ;
and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord with their
faces to the ground." And then " the Levites caused the people
to understand the law ; and they read in the book of the law
of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused the people to
understand the reading." And when the people would hava
wept — for their own and their ancestors' sinful departure from
i-he commands of the Lord stood before them more vividly

PERIOD V. EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 121

more appalling, as they thus listened to the law — Nehemiah and
Ezra forbade it, for they said, " The day was holy unto the Lord
their God ; mourn not, nor weep ; but go your way, eat the fat,
and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom
nothing is prepared : for this day is holy unto our Lord : neither
be ye sorry ; for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

Solomon, rejoicing in consequence, followed this public reading
of the law. The Feast of Tabernacles was proclaimed throughout
all the cities of Judea, and observed with such solemnity and
gladness as had not been since the days of Joshua the son of
Nun, and in exact accordance with the written law of Moses,
keeping the feast seven days, and on the eighth day a solemn
assembly. A general fast, confession of sins, repentance, and
prayer, with reading the law, and worshipping the Lord their
God, soon after followed, the Levites rehearsing the many tokens
of the Eternal's goodness, from the selection of Abraham unto
the present time, and the awful wickedness of the people. Then
followed the acceptance and sealing of the covenant by the men
of Israel, their wives, sons, and daughters — the selection of the
people — the rulers to dwell in Jerusalem — and of the rest of the
people, one in ten to be chosen by lot to dwell in Jerusalem,
and the other nine to dwell in other cities, and thus re-people
the still beautiful, but mournfully desolate land. In the twelfth
chapter, we mid the selection of priests and officers for the
service of the Temple, and the solemn dedication of the wall,
" with gladness, and with thanksgiving, and with singing, with
cymbals, psalteries, and harps. Also on that day they offered
great sacrifices, and rejoiced : for God had made them rejoice
with great joy : tb/3 wives and children rejoiced, so that the
joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar oft." Officers for the
treasuries, offerings, firstfruits, tithes, singers, and porters, all
were appointed, exactly in accordance with the law of Moses,
und " the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son."

The mixed multitude was also separated from the children
of Israel. Even Tobiah, the Ammonite, closely allied to Eliashib
the priest, who had weakly allowed him, although an Ammonite,
a chamber in the Temple, was cast forth with all his household
Btuif. No distinction of persons was made. All who had
married strange wives, were they united even to the priest and
highest officers, were, *f they refused to separate from their
unlawful connexions, scouted from the congregation of the Lord

122 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

And thus, after a weary interval, faithfulness to the religion of
Moses, and, in consequence, external and internal peace, seemed
once more about to be the portion of Judea.

But let it not be imagined that this was either easily or
satisfactorily accomplished ; or that the noble exertions of Ezra
and Nehemiah were productive of enjoyment, and, consequently,
of earthly reward. So far from it, that if we read over the
books of Ezra and Nehemiah attentively, we must be struck by
the repeated mention of humiliation, fast, and prayer, with
which their efforts were attended — the constant struggle, constant
disappointment — the hope roused by a seeming response to
their own ardent aspirations, and crushed again by revolt and
disobedience. We find both Ezra and Nehemiah repeatedly
t?4king on themselves the burden of their brethren's guilt, and
beseeching pardon, as if themselves were the offenders. The
prayer of Ezra, in the ninth chapter of the book bearing his
name, and that of Nehemiah in his first chapter, are the most
exquisite illustrations of pure patriotism that can be found in
any history, and should bid our hearts glow with love and
veneration towards men who so toiled and suffered for their
country and their God. Profane History can give us no nobler
and purer patriots than Ezra and Nehemiah. They may tell
of warlike deeds and glorious heroism ; but it is a nobler
heroism, a more exalted valor, which can struggle on to free
their countrymen from self-inflicted slavery — from those shackles
of the spirit, which are far more difficult to remove than the
shackles of a tyrant. Ezra and Nehemiah had to work not only
against the enslaver, but also against the enslaved, for men's
evil passions and rebellious wills were the tyrants who held
them chained, and these were to be subdued ere freedom could
be achieved, and Judea liberated from the thraldom of her
children's sins. Modern patriots in general reap the full reward
of their exciting enterprise in national prosperity and individual
glory. The deaths of E/ra and Nehemiah are not specified ;
but their books reveal enough to convince us that they toiled unto
the end — that personal aggrandizement, earthly distinctions,
entered not their thoughts. They had indeed done much ; but
their lives probably closed ere half their patriotic wishes were
accomplished, or their ceaseless exertions crowned with visible
success.

And so it must be with all those whc embark heart and souJ

PERIOD V. EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 123

in the glorious service of a people's good. There must be dark
ness and despondency but too often, even in the noble mind,
which has cast behind it all thought of selfish enjoyment, who
pines, seeks, aspires after but one glorious goal, the improve
ment, religious and intellectual, of his species. There must bo
sadness, there must be disappointment, for such minds look far
beyond, into space and time, and hope to compass the advance
ment of an age in the brief period of one human life. They
feel, they know what should be ; they thirst, they struggle after
its attainment with a giant's strength, forgetful that in the
individual minds of the vast mass of their fellows, there may be
but one little grain of the immortal, the intellectual, >vhich is so
restlessly working in themselves ; and, therefore, that time only
can behold the reception and acknowledgment of those import
ant End* and Truths, which they so vividly behold.

Those, then, who would serve their fellows, must be armed
with patience, with perseverance, which will bid them work on,
in the very face of disappointment, and an utter want of sym
pathy ; with hope that will carry them on her angel wings, above
the ruggedness and toil of mere earthly labor ; with faith that
will look into the future, to behold there the fruition of those
seeds which they have perhaps even unconsciously sown.

Would we, then, in truth, labor in the cause of God, by
endeavoring to benefit our fellows, we must utterly annihilate
the vain presumptuous dream that we shall behold our own
work, anc5 thus reap a reward which has never yet been found
on earth. Why do we see so many turn their shoulders from
the wheel au the very moment when they should persevere ?
Why do we see the best and noblest exertions often checked
in their first vigor, and never resumed ? Why do we hear so
many, whose words had once been so eloquent with hope of
good, in a few brief years speak but of the prevalence of evil,
the impossibility of achieving aught of lasting worth ? Why 3
because they look to present reward — they expect to see the
matured fruii before even the seed could have taken root ; they
provided not against disappointment ; they studied not the
rugged nature of man ; they look not back into the past, and,
comparing it with the present, mar): what was and what is —
and note the long years which intervened before improvements
which we now feel so common, that they are no longer improve
ments, could be accepted and acknowledged. They forget that

124

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

almost every national benefit conferred on man was in its firsi
projection deemed a very madness, and more than one of its
hapless originators persecuted unto death. Yet the seeds such
supposed maniacs planted never withered; they lay in often
uncongenial soil, proving their existence, and passing from one
mind into another, perchance only by a breath, which bore
them unconscious of its burden, till in the proper time they
burst into full blossom, were cherished, fostered, for men had
advanced while that little seed lay in abeyance, and then
ripened into fadeless fruit.

Irrelevant as these remarks may appear to our subject, yet a
little consideration will prove their application.

In Judaism, as in everything else, the present is an a^e of
advancement— of improvement. The law, indeed, which God
gave, remains pure, perfect, eternal as Himself, needing nauo-ht
from man ; but it is in the observance of that law, its spiritual
observance, in which we remark progression, and hail it with
glowing thankfulness, as seed, which, when ripened into fruit,
will lead us once more to our own Holy Land, and to the
restored favor of our God. But we are no enthusiasts to
believe this will be either in our own time, or in that of some
generations down. We do not suppose, because there is a stir
in our ranks, — an aspiration after holiness, — a struggle with
deep-rooted prejudices,— a desire to become purer, more spirit
ual, more enlightened, — that we shall look upon the fruit of
such holy seed,— that twenty, fifty, aye, even a hundred years
WLl complete the full perfection of the glorious End for which
we aspire now. No ! And we would conjure and beseech our
brethren, in whose hearts lieth the ardent desire to accomplish
national and individual good, to think with us — to despond not;
if they behold nothing which would reveal that the holy seed
has taken root, but much to make them tremble that it has
faded into air. Let them but cease to hope to reap what they
sow— let them but look far into Space and Time, and rest con
tent that their labors will then bring forth fruit — only let them
nerve themselves to work, without the faintest dream of earthly
recompense or visible success, and labor on. They " will have
cast their bread upon the waters, and they will find it after
many days."

It is not, however, only in a generally national view that wa
nave taken this rapid sketch of the books of Ezra and Nehemiali

I' K H I O 1) V. EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 126

They are particularly important to us as women of Israel,
burdened as we are with the charge, that Judaism degrades and
enslaves us. By the especial mention of wives and women in
every ceremony and covenant with which Ezra and Nehemiah
again organized the people, it is very evident that no written
or even traditional law then existed to our disparagement.
Neither had captivity, and a residence with a heathen people,
altered the national equality of the sexes, which in every reli
gious ordinance the Jewish law commanded. This is a very
important truth ; as the period of Ezra is many years removed
from the direct interference of the Almighty with His people :
and in such a time of confusion and departure from the pure
law, had there been any traditional statute which could have
allowed the degradation of the weaker sex, we should find it
acting against them in full force. Had the women of Israel
been unaccustomed to join in religious exercises, or to feel them
selves of no importance in the congregation of the Lord, it is not
likely, that, after so long an interval of captivity, when the
national ceremonies were compelled to be suspended, we should
find them so eagerly flocking to listen to the reading of the law,
bringing their children with them to join in the confession and
humiliation for national sin, and to enter, heart and soul, into a
covenant to walk in the law of Moses. They had no doubt seen
enough, in their captivity, of the women of other countries, to
feel more gratefully than ever, their own superiority in station,
intellect, and responsibility. Eagerly and joyfully then they
resumed obedience to that law, which guided and protected
them with such mild and gentle guardianship, lifting up their
hearts to a Father in heaven, who so watched over and tended
them, and compelled man to assign them that station of equality
and respectful tenderness, which, without such law, would, if we
judge of the manners and customs of other and contemporary
nations, have inevitably been refused them.

With this important fact, then, we close our present Period,
and with it the records of our female ancestors, which are found
in the Bible. Our succeeding parts will contain notices of those
exalted Hebrew females mentioned in Josephus — a brief review
of Israel as she was after the erection of the second temple —
and the effects of war, dispersion, and persecution, upon her now.
We shall find, eVen there, enough to confirm us in the position
we have advanced; but even had we not — even if the records

126 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

of more modern Judaism presented nothing but a dark and
awful picture of social and individual degradation — even if laws
were promulgated by erring man, depriving us of our long-
granted privileges, and debasing us in the scale of creation much
below our brother man — still it would prove nothing but the
fearful effects of superstition and intolerance on the human mind.
It could not do away with the law which God Himself had given.
It dare not term itself divine, if it contradict one item of that
which the Bible holds up before us, alike in the precepts given
by the voice of God, and in the history of His female children ;
and, therefore, as in not one precept, in not one mention of
woman in the Word of God, can be discovered one evidence
of her social or individual abasement, so must not only the
Israelite, but his opponents be convinced, that the woman of
Israel needs no other law, no other faith but her own, to convince
her of her immortal destiny and her earthly duties — to guard
the hallowed circle of her home — or raise her, as an individual
to perfect equality with man,

SIXTH PERIOD

CHAPTER I.

1KVIEW CF THE JEWISH NATION, 1 R 0 M THJJ
RETURN FROM BABYLON, TO THE APPEAL OF
IIYRCANUS AND ARISTOBULUS TO P 0 M P E Y .

WE are now to commence a period in the History of the
Women of Israel, completely and even painfully distinct from
any which has gone before it. Indeed, so complicated, so amal
gamated with the histories of other nations, so little purely
national is Israel, and so few and far between are the notices of
women, in the history of the nation, from the death ^of Nehe-
miah to the dispersion, — that there is very,very little which we can
claim our own, or from which we can glean the consolation and
lessons for individual social guidance, which are presented in the
word of God. So little is there, in fact, of woman, that we may
be censured for dwelling so long on a period which has so little
to do with a work entitled " The Women of Israel," as almost to
contradict its name. Yet where there are so very few works
relative to our history in the vernacular idiom, and still fewer in
which the Hebrew himself comes forward, with an attempt to
fill up the void in national literature, and give the youth of his
nation some assistance, distinct from the peculiar tenets which
must pervade the writings of the most liberal of other creeds ;
we trust, that to linger a little while on our general history and
thus explain away some of the errors and prejudices which have
unconsciously gathered round us from unanswered accusations,
may not be considered unnecessary, or even irrelevant to the
subject on which we professed to treat.

Where there is no allusion to the Women of Israel of the
past, let it be remembered that we are writing for the Women
of Israel of the present ; and, therefore, that we do not depart
from the profession of our title. To the men of Israel — the

128 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

works of our own ancient writers, are, or ought to be, open ; and
they, therefore, cannot need the feeble effort of a female pen :
but woman does. She has neither the time nor privilege, nor,
in fact, the capability of seeking and penetrating into the vast
tomes of stupendous learning, the complicated and allegorical
questions and replies, narratives and histories, contained in the
works of our venerable teachers ; but is she on that account, to
remain entirely ignorant of the history of her people, in which,
whether in prosperity or adversity, in patriotism or persecution,
she has ever borne a distinguished part ? How is she ever to
realize that spirit of nationality and holiness which should be so
peculiarly her own, if she knows little of her national history,
save from Gentile writers ? How know what is demanded of
her now, if she does not sometimes ponder on the past, remem
bering, while she shudders at the awful sufferings of her peop.e,
that what lias been, may again be. And is she endowed with
the same noble spirit which guided her hapless ancestors ? Has
she the same deep love of her God, and His religion, which will
keep her faithful in the midst of the horrors of persecution, or
amidst the yet more dangerous ordeal of prosperity and peace ?
How is she to know this, if she looks upon herself only as the
child of the soil which has given her a home, and all its attend
ant blessings ? How is she to feel this, if she looks on the his
tory of her people as far too antiquated to concern her now, and
lends but too ready an ear to the false tale, that ancient and
modern Judaism are totally distinct. How is she to reject pre
judice, and to separate the true from the false, if all her information
concerning the history of her people be derived from Gentile
writers ? It is expecting far too much from human nature to believe
that we can feel as Jews, only because we are born such. More
particularly women, who seeing so little different in the daily
routine of their domestic lives from those around them, may be
liable entirely to overlook their nationality, and imagine that a
formal adherence to peculiar forms and ceremonies is sufficient
for them ; and, in consequence, know much less of their own
history, teeming, as it does, with so much to interest and appal,
than that of the country in which they dwell.

The scarcity of Jewish works by Jewish writers, is the real
cause of this much regretted evil. We have histories without
number, and suited to every age, and every taste, of othet
Countries • but where shall we find one of the Jews which w<i

PERIOD VI HISTORICAL REVIEW. 129

can safely put intj the hands of our children and youth ?* The
.ove of England, of France, of America, is imbibed with their
growth, because they know and delight in every event of these
Jieir adopted countries ; and they would feel the same towards
their own land, could they learn as much concerning it.

To provide for this want cannot be accomplished in a work
like the present. The writer has only mentioned these things to
explain, why, instead of concluding where the biographies of
the " Women of Israel" may appear to conclude, noticing only
the few female characters which may be casually mentioned,
from the erection of the Second Temple to the Dispersion, she
prefers taking a rapid, but connected, survey of the history of
her people during that period. Where notices of individuals
are scarce, we must endeavor to defend our position from gene
ralities. Analogies may be drawn from the histories of states
as well as from the biographies of individuals ; and, as we
proceed, we shall find that much which may appear from a
mere superficial glance irrelevant to the Women of Israel indi
vidually, will yet" so bear upon them socially, that our assertion
of their non-degradation, their equality and elevation in the
Jewish law, and in Jewish history, will be strongly and unan
swerably confirmed.

The return of the Jews from Babylon did not restore that
nationality and exclusiveness which Ezra and Nehemiah hoped,
and for which they labored. With the Babylonish captivity, had
in truth ended the history of Judea as a distinct nation. The very
division of the tribes appears to have been lost ; and instead of
the patriarchal territories of Reuben, Simeon, Ephraim, &c., we
only read of Samaria, Galilee, Perea, Idumea, and of Judea, as
signifying a very trifling portion of what had once been comprised
under that name. But two tribes returned from captivity, and
for them the province termed Judea might have been sufficient ;
but how changed must they have felt was the aspect of their
once beautiful land — how vainly have yearned to behold their
brethren occupying the territories which had been assigned them
by God himself; and thronging to His one Temple in the feasts
lie had appointed ? Not only were strangers and aliens within

* Milman's is an exception. What we want, are those histories which
ire can put into young persons' hands ; so written that they are read
"or pleasure, not as tasks.

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

their land, but ten tribes were lost, and they themselves, though
nominally free, in reality still under the yoke of the Persian kinSs.
Nor was Palestine any longer the only residence of the children
of God. Communities were forming in many parts of the
world, particularly in the many territories of Persia and in
Egypt; and thus, though outwardly bound by the same
religion, inwardly, interests could not fail to be divided, accord
ing to the position which they occupied in connexion with
foreign courts.

Of the constant rebellions against their Heavenly Kino-, by
the recurrence of idolatry, and those awfu. practices mentioned
in the_ previous periods of their history, we no longer hear ; but
in their place we find assimilation and intimate connexion with
the manners and customs of other nations. In fact, so intimately
blended with the histories of Persia, Macedon, Syria, E<rypt
Parthia, and, finally, Rome, is the history of Judea from the
Babylonish captivity to the War, that it is scarcely possible to
divide them, or find any national incidents of sufficient note as
to enable us to dwell upon them as we have hitherto done.
The Eternal had veiled His face from them. Even in their
return, we find no evidence that He had restored them the light
of His presence, and acknowledged them once more as a distinct
and holy nation— governed by Himself. The very religion, there
fore, appears to have taken a different aspect— the High Priest
was still nominally the head of the nation— the ceremonials of
the law rigidly and perseveringly observed— but its beautiful
spirit of love, which had entered into every household, blessing
and guiding every domestic relation, appears to have been
entirely lost, from the national assimilation with other countries.
That there were still families in whom this blessed spirit existed,
true and faithful to every spiritual as well as outward ordinance'
cannot be doubted ; but in the darkness enveloping this part
of pur history, we can only trace the general departure of
nationality, and prevalence of public evil, which so repeatedly
exposed us ;o misery and wrath. Before the Babylonish cap
tivity, even the periods of most awful iniquity were illumined
by rays from God Himself, in the holy men who, inspired by
Him, stood up to threaten and console. We were not left
entirely to our own hearts — to sin, unrebuked; but on our
return from Babylon, this might no longei be — we had indeed
power to subdue sin and become holy, fitted once again to

PERIOD VI. THE MACCABEES. 131

occupy the promised land, and in the face of the whole earth
stand forth the chosen people of the Lord ; but this conquest
was to be achieved by individual and national efforts. The
Eternal had instructed us in those things, the observance of
which would regain His favor. He left us to pursue our own
paths.

During the wars of Alexander of Macedon, and the contests
of his successors, Judea repeatedly changed ^ masters — and wo
therefore perceive how Mttle she can be considered as an inde
pendent state. So few claims had she to nationality, that we
repeatedly read of the Hebrews joining voluntarily the ranks of
their several masters — serving as faithful soldiers to the Greek
or Egyptian, and, in consequence, imbibing interests and feelings
totally distinct from the Hebrew warriors of the olden time.
These soldiers seldom or never returned to their own land, but
swelled the Jewish colonies of other states ; and, therefore, long
before the general dispersion, we perceive the prophesy <f
Moses already in partial fulfilment — proving at once the utter
fallacy of the argument entertained by some Gentiles, that the
return from the Babylonish captivity is the fulfilment of those
glorious and consoling promises contained in all the Prophets —
;md comforting us by the conviction, that these things are yet
to be.

At length, however, the national spirit was aroused ; and for
a brief interval independence was secured. The awful cruelties
of Antiochus Epiphanes, the universal suffering of the whole
Jevish people, not only from bodily torment, but from the pro
hibition of their sacred law (which, of course, on the instant
became more dear), the desecration of their holy Temple — evils
so terribL could no longer be endured ; and under the heroic
Maccabeean brothers, the Jews threw off the yoke of slavery.
It was a noble epoch in our history, as full of chivalric daring,
of the purest patriotism, of the most heroic perseverance, as can
be found in the pages of any history, ancient or modern. They
fought for no personal aggrandizement — for no increase of ter-
litory — no dominion over their fellows — but simply to purify
their land from the abominations which had desecrated its holy
soil — to re-establish the religion of their God, and obtain the
freedom of their persecuted brethren.

And all this they did. The plan of our present work forbids
oui lingering on this glorious epoch, and we are compelled to

132 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

pass il by as briefly and unsatisfactorily as all our other historic
notices ; but what Hebrew of either sex can read this period o<*
Jewi&h history, even in the narration of Gentile writers, with-
out such emotions stirring within him as instinctively betray his
near connexion with the heroic spirits of whom he reads ! Have
we not patriots and heroes, on whom to dwell with that glowing
admiration, so thrilling and so beneficial to our aspiring youth I
—and shall we only associate our ideas of the Jewish nation
with what she is, never casting a thought on what she was ?

The independence wrought by the Asmonaeans, or Maccabees,
permitted Juclea, for a brief interval, to take her position in the
world as a sovereignty governed by her own kings. The gra
titude of the people naturally led to the bestowal of the royal
dignity on the family of their deliverers. Simon was the only one
of the brothers remaining ; and, in a general assembly held at
Jerusalem, the people made both the High Priesthood and the
office of Regent, or Prince of the Jews, hereditary in his family.
Aristobulus the First, the grandson of Simon, was the first
who assumed the title of King, his father, John Hyrcanus,
and his grandfather, Simon, having been satisfied with their dig
nity of High Priest, and being acknowledged by foreign poten
tates and their own people, as Princes of the Jews. The real
dignity lasted but a very brief interval ; and those who possessed
it, instead of strengthening and nationalizing their home domi
nions, endeavoring to restore that ancient and exclusive kingdom
which had once characterized Judea, were continually makin^
alliances with the Romans, and other states; becoming, as
it were, so blended with them, that it is difficult to regard
Judea, even in her well-earned independence, as the holy°and
peculiar nation which she had been, and was, in fact, command
ed still to be. We find it difficult to recognise her as the same
nation which had before occupied the land. Her frequent
missions to other countries, her alliances and foreign friendships,
could not fail to decrease her nationality, by the constant efflux
of Jews to distant lands, where it was scarcely possible for them
to adhere to their religion, and the repeated and invited
admission of strangers within Judea. We can no longer recog
nise the High Priest of Moses' ordination, who was to bear on
his breast and brow the solemn symbol of his inauguration ;
who was to minister in the holy of holies, till he seemed
m the eyes of the people, to stand OK the very threshold of

PERIOD VI. FOREIGN ALLIANCES. 133

heaven, and receive direct communications from the Most High.
We cannot recognise this peaceful and sacred minister in the
high priesthood of any who, after the Babylonish captivity,
bore that solemn name. The service of the Temple could have
been but secondary in the multitudinous affairs, foreign and
domestic, which crowded round the Prince or sovereign of
Judea. In the law of Moses, the offices were not to be united ;
because, in the first place, the tribe of Levi were devoted as the
elected priests or servants of the Temple ; and from them, there
fore, no king could have been chosen. In the second, engaged,
as a sovereign must be, in unavoidable wars, and other tem
poral concerns, Moses knew that it was impossible for him to
devote himself to spiritual things, as the office of High Priest
demanded ; and in the third, no king, who, as the leader
of armies, must have been a shedder of human blood, could ever
have been sufficiently pure to have attended at the altar of the
Most Holy. David was not even permitted to build a " House
for the Lord ;" how much less, then, could he have officiated as
High Priest !

In the later kings, one prevention to their obtaining that
solemn office, was evaded. They were descended from the
priestly line of Joiarib ; but that very circumstance proves how
completely at an end was the division of land and service,
which had formerly characterized Judea and her sons. We are
told repeatedly, " unto the tribe of Levi Moses gave not any
inheritance ; the Lord God was their inheritance, as he said
unto them." How then, if the division of the tribes had con
tinued in force, could the office of high priest and king have
been united ? How could a king's inheritance be the house of
the Lord God alone, as it could and ought to be the priest's ?
We are particular on this point, because it is often asserted,
and by some believed, that the temporary independence of
J udea as a sovereignty fulfilled the prophecies ; whereas the very
fact of th« royal family descending from Levi, not from Judah,
and the complete amalgamation of the tribes, so that their divi
sion was impossible, is a sufficient evidence in itself, that the
prophecies contained most forcibly in Ezekiel xxxvii. from verse
15 to the end, arid in the whole of the forty-eighth chapter, were
not in any one single point fulfilled by our return from Babylon ;
and, therefore, must allude to a period centuries more distan1
from the term of the Prophet's life.

134 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Simon, John Hyrcanus, Aristobulus the First, and Alexander
Jannaeus, resigned successively, uniting, as had been established
by the people, the priesthood, with the royal purple. Alexandei
Janngeus left the crown to his wife Alexandra, and, in con
sequence, the high priesthood was severed from the crown, and
given to Hyrcanus her eldest son. Had he succeeded hia
mother, as was anticipated, the offices would have probably
been quietly re-united. But the daring and aspiring spirit
of his younger brother, Aristobulus, by causing internal dissen
sion, gave the first fatal blow to the tottering independence
(so called) of Judea. On the death of Alexander, Hyrcanus
was, indeed, nominated king, and the children of Aristobultia
retained as hostages for their father's conduct ; but a single
battle between the brothers decided the point. Hyrcanus con
sented to retire to private life ; and Aristobulus was acknow
ledged king. The high priesthood is not mentioned ; and from
the continued enmity manifested towards Aristobulus by
the Pharisees, who were mostly priests and teachers, it almost
appears as if he could not have occupied that station. Even had
he been publicly acknowledged high priest, the office must have
been merely nominal ; for his constant foreign and civil wars
would have allowed him but little time or inclination for atten
tion to an office demanding such individual purity and domestic
peace.

The independence of Judea (if indeed it can be so called),
reckoning from the election of Simon, in 14 B.C. to the appeal
of the brothers to Pompey, the great Roman general, in 63 B.C.,
had lasted eighty years — a period fraught with foreign war and
civil dissension, cruelties and miseries; resembling indeed
the histories of the nations around them, but utterly incompati
ble with the pure law which had guided Judah before the cap
tivity.

We read of Aristobulus the First shutting up his mother
in prison, and starving her to death, because his father having
left the crown to her, she naturally refused to relinquish her
authority, and this man was termed a high priest of a people
whose beautiful law had commanded that even disrespect
to a mother should be punished with death ! We read of
brothers arming against brothers, the most influential imprison
ing and even murdering the others — of Jews rising against
Jews, or compelled to fight against each other, by joining oppos-

PERIOD VI. — HYRCANU8. 136

ing armies, and adopting the interests of different states. We,
search in vain for that beautiful spirit which, had the law been
obeyed, would have quieted and hallowed the people. We
glance over these sickening horrors, and ask, are these records oi
a people to whom God himself spake in thunder from Mount
Sinai, and deigned to give a law which all had the power
to obey, and which if obeyed, would have brought down
the days of heaven upon earth ? Can we marvel as we read the
appalling history of the Jews, from their return from Babylon to
the last war, at the awful punishments and miseries which have
been their portion in every quarter of the globe ? And yet,
while other nations have passed away for ever, leaving not
a trace, we still remain as witnesses of the awful effects of
human sin ; and more thrilling still, of that changeless truth
which had said we should be a people before Him FOR EVEK,
and therefore we exist; — of that unfathomable mercy, which
holds out promises of pardon, restoration, love, and therefore we
may hope and pray, and cling to Him as our Rock of Befog**
still.

Of our domestic history as a people during these eighty
years, we can glean little, except that at the very time the
law was so appallingly disobeyed and disregarded — there had
arisen men, stern and exclusive adherents of both written
and traditional laws. At the very time that in some points all
nationality appeared entirely lost, and Judea only sought
for temporal dominions, which might be secured and widened
by hostile wars or peaceful alliances with other potentates,
a spirit of exclusiveness, of rigid observance of some portions of
the law had, as in direct contradiction, chained one body of
Jews. We are told that " the law, which of old was perpetually
violated, or almost forgotten, was now enforced by general con
sent, to its extreme point or even beyond it. Prone before
on every occasion to adopt the idolatrous practices of their
neighbors, they now secluded themselves from the rest of the
world, in proud assurance of their own religious superiority —
their city, their native soil, their religion, became the objects of
the most passionate attachment ; the observance of the Sabbath,
and even of the sabbatical year, was enforced with rigor.
In short, from this period (the return from captivity) commences
that unsocial spirit — that hatred towards mankind — that want

136 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

of humanity to all but their own kindred, with which thev have
been branded by all the Roman writers."*

This, though an eloquent passage, scarcely appears to
have sufficient foundation, as actuating the whole nation.
How could the whole law be rigidly enforced when we see
Aristobulus the First acting as we have noticed ? How could
the laws, alluding to the extreme purity and sanctity of the
high priest, have been obeyed, when that office was so often
filled by a warrior ? How could they be said to keep them
selves secluded as a nation, when we see so many thousands
fighting under the banner of foreign kings, and accepting offices
and dignities at their hands? How could they demonstrate
hatred to all mankind when foreign alliances were so often
made? And we shall find Herod sending his own sons
to Rome for their education, and forming intimate friendships
with Antony and other noble Romans. How could the
manners and customs of their land and religion be said to claim
Jieir most passionate attachment, when we see kings and people
BO often sedulously cultivating the manners, arts, games, and
vices, first of Greece and then of Rome ?

As a people and a nation, whatever they might have professed,
they acted contrary to the law of God, in plunging deeper
and deeper into the dark abyss from which no arm either
heavenly or earthly could be stretched forth to save them. To
a certain body of the nation, the passage we have quoted
may be applicable ; and it is to them we allude, as in the midst
of national anarchy and disobedience, even in the midst of their
own too often mistaken zeal, the preservers of the relio-ion
and the law.

To obtain a just and impartial estimate of the real character,
intentions, and bearings of this body, known as the Pharisees, is
to the Hebrew of the present day almost impossible. The Jew,
whose mind and heart have been guided by his Talmudical
studies, cannot fail to regard them with the deepest veneration
and love ; — the Jew, who has known them only through the
medium of Gentile writers, must unconsciously imbibe a portion
of their feeling, and perhaps regard them only as superstitious
eealots, following the letter of the law, but not its spirit Th«

* Milman.

PERIOD VI. THE ZA.DDIKIM. 137

allusiots to the Pharisees, in the book which Gentiles believe
divine, and the subsequent explanations in their various com
mentaries, cannot fail to engender this spirit. But the Hebrew
should guard against imbibing it, because the view is false in
many of its bearings. It is very difficult, when we only possess
histories written by Gentiles in a liberal and friendly spirit, and
containing so much with which we can fully sympathize, to
realize that on some points as Hebrews, our opinions must form
themselves, and not be guided by those of the historian. The
Pharisees is one of these — on which we must reflect and exer
cise our own judgment. The Rabbinical historian would
unhesitatingly pronounce them saints, as little less holy or
inspired than the prophets themselves ; — the Gentiles, as cruel,
prejudiced bigots, hiding the most fearful vices uc.ler the mask
of extremest sanctity. Both are probably wrong. The
Pharisees were but men, liable to all the failings of humanity ;
but their religion, even if carried beyond the law, was honest
and sincere. The laxity and indifference of the multitude com
pelled a greater degree of strictness ; they were forced to raise
around them a wall of exclusiveness, lest they too should fall.
They beheld the awful evils creeping steadily amidst all ranks,
and was it strange that they should have encouraged an
unsocial spirit, and held themselves aloof? They beheld foreign
manners and customs destroying the nationality of their people
and land ; that the law of their God, which they justly held
supreme, was disregarded ; and was it unnatural-, that they
should seclude themselves, proud of their spiritual superiority — •
or that their attachment to their land and Temple should
increase in passionate intensity, as they beheld it so often
trampled upon and desecrated by foreigners ? That a want of
charity, of humility, of forbearance, marked their religion,
might be ; nay, in that terrible period it could scarcely be other
wise. Party spirit even then had dried up the channels of
social affection, and the spirit of love and meekness which the
religion of Moses taught, could not be realized in the popular
tumults and crimes for ever raging round them. Individuals
there were, no doubt, combining the pure spirit and loving mind
with the outward ceremonial ; but in this brief sketch we can
only generalize. Still, spite of their faults — spite of the too
rigid, too exclusive notions, which, if indeed they had exist
ence, originated simply from the fear of being too lax, and

THE WOMEN OF ISR.AEL.

sharing the indifference and infidelity of too many of their
fellows, the Pharisees must be regarded with veneration as the
preservers of the law,

Now should the Zaddikim, or righteous, be passed unnoticed.
Of these men we shall find no notice in the Talmudical writers,
because they were opposed to much which that party considered
of equal sanctity and obligation with the written law of God. But
in an historical sketch, which, to be correct and useful, must be
perfectly impartial, untinged by any individual feeling, we
cannot refrain from noticing them, and in a very different spirit
to the abhorrence with which they are generally regarded.
However mistaken might have been some of their notions,
however impossible to follow the law of the Eternal, without
some regard to the useful practical explanations of the Elders ;
still that they were as sincere and zealous as their opponents,
cannot be doubted. These differing views aided materially in
the preservation of the law, although the dissensions appeared
to, and in fact did, increase the internal miseries and quarrels of
Judea.

^ Given up as they were to their own imaginations, tneir
divine nature — apparently utterly lost in the dominion of evil
passions — we seem to read but of anarchy and sin, more fear
ful than any which had come before, and increasing to a climax
which compelled the chastisement so long deferred. But if
with a faithful heart and unshrinking eye, we look within this
rolling tumult — if we look beneath the stormy waves of dissen
sion and hate and wrath — we trace in the very elements that
increased our miseries, those of our final preservation. We
behold but the workers of evil, for wickedness ever comes
uppermost ; but the faithful hearts, the enduring martyrs, tho
good, the true, are invisible in history, as in daily life, even as
the still calm depths of the ocean, whose waves are in tumult
and inform. Never was the divinity of virtue entirely extinct,
either in man or nations ; and we may rest content and satis
fied, that even in the midst of the blackened annals on which
our eyes must rest, there was virtue and spirituality, and
truth, sincerity, and zeal ; and that there will be these to the
end of time — invisible in history, invisible in life, but working
on silently and unceasingly, even to themselves, towards the
purity, and elevation, and preservation of the religion of the
Lord. Nor are such workers confined to one Darty or ow

PERIOD VI. GENERAL REVIEW. 139

creed. Outwardly, each will condemn each; but inwardly, thev
work together.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE APPEAL TO POMPEY TO THE DEATH
OF HEROD.

HYRCANUS'S quiet surrender of his authority was not of long
continuance. Urged on by Antipater, the father of Herod,
he again took the field ; and after various alternations of
success and defeat, both brothers appealed to Pompey, the
Roman general ; — first by commissioners, and then, by com
mand, in person.

Each produced defenders ; but many of the nation came to
protest against both, as having illegally changed the form of
government from the supremacy of the High Spriest to that of
king; a charge sufficient to confirm our idea that, from the
death of Alexander, the former office had completely merged
in the latter. The representatives of neither party, however,
had much weight. Pompey decided as was best for his
own and the Roman interest, only so far favoring Hyrcanus, as
to tempt Aristobulus to resume hostilities ; convinced that so
doing would only prove his weakness, make him prisoner to Pom
pey, and eventually cause the whole nation to submit ; and his
prognostics were correct, with the sole exception of a remnant
of Aristobulus's faction, who threw themselves into the Temple,
valiantly resolved to defend it to the last.

After three months' struggle, during which the cessation of
warfare on the Sabbath had given the Romans their only
advantage, the Temple was taken, and twelve hundred of the
Jews slain. Amongst them were several priests, who, engaged
in sacrifices and other services of the Temple at the moment
of the assault, never moved from the altar, nor faltered in
the performance of a single rite, but fell murdered when;

140 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

they stood firm and undaunted, and truly warriors of tha
Lord.

The faction of Hyrcanus were amongst the most furious in
the massacre of their countrymen, painfully proving the fearful
effects of party spirit, and how completely nationality must
at this period have been lost. Hyrcanus was nominated High
Priest and Prince of the country, on condition of his submitting
to the Roman government, paying tribute, making no effort
to increase his territories, and never to resume the crown.
The dignity was thus merely nominal, the independence of the
country at an end, and Judea little more than a province of
Rome.

Aristobulus and his children, his sons, and two daughters,
were carried captives to Rome. Alexander, one of these sons
(and afterwards the father of Mariamne and Aristobulus),*
escaped on the journey to Rome, and returned to Judea.

The desecration of the Temple by Pompey, in profaning
its most sacred precincts, excited towards him the utmost
hatred of the Jews — a hatred which caused them to behold his
gradual decline with satisfaction, and wherever they were
scattered, they simultaneously swelled the ranks of his rival
Julius Caesar.

From this period, in all the internal troubles of Judea, we read
of her appealing to the Romans for assistance ; the never-failing
method of kingdoms being entirely subjected by the party to
whom they appeal. Hyrcanus did not enjoy his authority in
peace — Alexander, the elder son of Aristobulus, above alluded
to, raised a considerable force, and made every preparation for
re- obtaining the possessions of his father. Gabinius, pro-consul
of Syria, called in by Hyrcanus, made head against him, and
compelled him t ^ surrender his fortresses. Aristobulus himself,
and his younger son, soon after escaped from Rome, and
headed another revolt against Hyrcanus, but with worse for
tune ; the former, severely wounded, was sent back in chains to
Rome — Antigonus, through the intercession of his mother,
obtained his release.

The form of government was then altered by Gabinius,
proving the very small portion of dignity or independence which
the nominal prince retained. Hyrcanus had had nothing to do
with the revolts ; but we find him deprived entirely of the royal
\uthority — and five senates, or sanhedrins, established at Teru

PERIOD VI. GENERAL REVIEW. 141

Ralera, Jericho, Gadara, Amatheus, and Sepphoris. This govern
ment continued till ten years afterwards, when Ccesar restored
Ilyrcanus to his former power.

"Though his arms were defeated, the spirit of Alexander, in
whom all the courage, enterprise, and chivalry of the Asmo-
nreans appeared to have centred, was still unsubdued. The
moment Gabinius had drawn off his forces, intent on the
conquest of Egypt, Alexander reappeared, drove the few
remaining Romans into a strong position on Mount Gerizim,
and there besieged them — courageously met Gabinius, who
had returned on hearing of the revolf, valiantly gave him battle
at the head of 80,000 men, and, though again defeated by the
irresistible Roman arms, and compelled to take flight, bore with
him his unconquered spirit still.

Both he and his father, however, fell victims to the Roman
civil war. Caesar had given Aristobulus his freedom, and com
manded him to create a diversion in Palestine in his favor.
The adherents of Pompey poisoned the unfortunate prince on his
journey. Alexander, who was levying soldiers in Judea for the
assistance of Caesar, was seized at Antioch by Scipio, the friend
of Pompey, and beheaded. Antigonus was, therefore, the only
scion of the family of Aristobulus remaining. Ilyrcanus
retained the sovereignty in name, Antipater in power. Win
ning the favor of CiBsar in his Egyptian wars, Antipater, while
he demanded and received the re-establishment of the High
Priesthood for Ilyrcanus, obtained for himself all the rights of a
Romar citizen, and the procuratorship of the whole of Judea.
Soon after, presuming still more on the incapacity of the feeble
prince whom he pretended to befriend, and on the friendship of
the Romans, he made his eldest son, Phasael, governor of
Jerusalem, and his younger, Herod, governor of Judea. This
is the first mention of a character so intimately blended witb
the fortunes of the Jewish people. The brevity of our present
sketch will not permit us even to attempt a delineation of the
shrewd and sagacious policy, and unfailing enterprise, with
which this extraordinary man made his way through the most
adverse factions, both Jewish and Roman, to the supremacy of
Judea, and to the intimate friendship of all the contending
neads of Rome. Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Lepidus, and, finally,
Augustus Cresar — men whose views wrere never the same, were
yet brought over by Herod's indomitable will, to befriend and

142 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

exalt him. Much of his public, and almost all his private his
tory, will be found in the memoir of Mariamne ; and, therefore,
needs no mention here. We will merely touch on those points
important in a national view. Antigonus, the sole surviving
son of Aristobulus, still struggled for the crown. He obtained
the succor of the Parthians, who overran Syria and Asia Minor,
while he himself, with a large native force, entered Jerusalem
and took possession of the Temple; the Hyrcanians, under
Herod and Phasael, holding the palace. The Jews had, at that
season, assembled from all quarters to celebrate the feast of
Pentecost, and so thronged the ranks of the contending factions.
How little did this national assemblage fulfil the bpirit of the
beautiful law which had thus called them together ! How
appallingly they contradicted the spirit of the divine law and
social unity ; for the encouragement of both which this holy
festival had been instituted ! They celebrated the delivery of
that holy Law which, in the very hour of its commemoration,
they defiled !

The partial success of Antigonus in Jerusalem, through his
Parthian allies, was more than balanced by the successful
intrigues carried on by his rival Herod in Rome, to which city,
after a multitude of adventures, he had safely escaped. His
entreaty that the sovereignty of Judea might be conferred on the
young son of Alexander gave the much coveted honor to himself;
and, conducted to the Capitol by Antony and Octavius, he was
there, in a heathen city, and with idolatrous sacrifices, anointed
king over the holy people of a Most Holy God !* Will this
fulfil the beautiful promises of the prophets ? this prove the
nationality of the Jewish people at that period ? Alas ! thi8
was but the commencement of denationalization !

But though nominally king, and aided by the all-powerful
Roman influence, Herod was not universally received as sove
reign by the Jewish people until some years afterwards, when
Antigonus, entirely defeated, surrendered at discretion ; and, in
spite of his cowardly entreaties for life, was, at Herod's solicita
tion, condemned by Antony, and by the axe of a common lictor
received his death.

Herod was now, indeed, sovereign of Jude_i. Never, before
the Babylonish captivity, had the crown of Jadah thus

* Jcsephus ; and Jahn's " History of the Hebrew Commonwealth.'

PERIOD VI. REIGN OF HEROD 143

into the family of an alien, who dared not assert himself of royal
blood, and whose very birth as a Jew is doubtful. Josephus
tells us that Antipater was indeed said, by Nicholas of Damas
cus, to be of the stock of the principal Jews, who came out of
Babylon ; but " that assertion of his was to gratify Herod, who
was 'his son, and who came afterwards, by certain revolutions of
fortune, to be King of the Jews." It is evident, from thie
passage, that Josephus himself doubts Herod's Jewish descent ,
and so must every one who reflects on his character and life.
He thought of and pursued his own aggrandizement alone.
The kingdom of Judea was no more to him than any other ter
ritory ; it was no longer a holy land — no longer the land of
promise under the direct guardianship of the Most High.
Where have we found, since the return from Babylon, that
divine interference which, in the worst and darkest periods of the
kingdom before the captivity, had been so distinctly visible ?
Where do we ever read of the throne of Judea being obtained
by aid of foreign powers? the holy kingdom allied with, or
subordinate to, the heathen and idolator? The word of the
Lord had passed, that the line of David (and consequently the
tribe of Judah) was the line of kings appointed, and the only
line recognisable by Him ; and, therefore, every prophecy
alluding to the restoration of the kingdom is STILL TO BE FUL
FILLED. The very fate of the Asmonaeans appears to evince the
displeasure of the Eternal in their acceptance of the kingdom ;
for they were not of His appointed race. As deliverers from
the heathen, as restorers of the Temple and the religion, they
were accepted individually in His sight ; but, from the very
hour of their assumption of the royal dignity in the person of
Aristobulus the First, only one who bore the Asmonaean name,
Alexander Jannaeus, died naturally in his bed. And not the
guilty alone ; the young and innocent — even those connected
only by the mother's side with the Asmonaeans, shared the
same awful doom, which hemmed round, as by an impenetrable
wall, the whole of that fated race.

Success the most brilliant crowned every foreign policy
of Herod. His marvellous ability extricated him from every
difficulty, and pushed forward his successes, till he became the
torror of all the surrounding nations. The country was at
peace, breathing, as it were, once again, from the dissensions and
miseries which, till the accession of Herod, had deluged Judea
18

144 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

with her own blood. ' But, though thus prosperous and at
peace, it was the peace and prosperity of any of the heathen
nations, not of the land of the Lord.

Herod, a very doubtful Jew himself, felt that the strong and
exclusive principles of nationality were adverse alike to foreign
ambition or domestic greatness. The law of Moses undoubtedly
circumscribed the regal power. Nor were foreign conquests
admissible with the exclusiveness of the Hebrew people.
To remove this barrier, and gradually prepare the minds of his
subjects for foreign usages, Herod introduced all the Grecian
and Roman games. A theatre was built within, and an amphi
theatre without, the walls of Jerusalem. Chariot-racing, boxing,
the drama, even the gladiators and wild beasts were there intro
duced. The people submitted, but with silent abhorrence ; for
such sanguinary exhibitions, as the two last mentioned, were
completely contrary to the mild and loving spirit of Mosaic
law.

Nor was this all. Building after building, all more c,r less
associated with the Roman and Grecian, rose up at the bidding
of Herod. His first magnificent enterprise was a superb palace
on Mount Sion ; his next was to rebuild and change into
a strong fortress, the palace of Baris ; to erect citadels at Gaba
in Galilee, and at Heshbon in Perasa ; and to rebuild Samaria
on a scale of extraordinary magnificence, peopling it with
his own soldiers, and the descendants of its former inhabitants.
At a later period in his reign, he erected a sumptuous palace-
fortress, in his usual style of architecture, on the spot where
he had defeated Antigonus, seven miles from Jerusalem, round
which a superb city speedily arose.

He spent twelve years in the erection and decoration of
a maritime city, which he called Ca3sarea, and almost entirely
colonized with Greeks. It resembled in its sumptuous style of
architecture, a city of gorgeous palaces. A great temple, dedi
cated to Augustus, occupied the centre, with two colossal
statues, one of Rome and the other of Caesar ; and, of course,
possessing the necessary appendages to a Grecian city, the
theatre and amphitheatre, in which the usual heathen games
were quinquennially performed.

Was it strange, then, as they beheld this increase of heathen
temples with every newly erected city, that the Jews should
forget the magnificence of their monarch, in the terrible though

PERIOD VI. REIGN OF HEROD. 143

that, slowly but surely, he was carrying out bis design of heathen
izing their country and themselves ? In some parts nationality
was still awake, burning to throw off the yoke of one who
had sunk them from their proud superiority as the Kingdom
of God, to a level with the vassal-kings of Rome ; but though
thoir murmurs were loud and deep, though conspiracies were
continually forming, Herod retained his power, continuing
to support his double character of Jew and Roman to the
last.

Hoping to ingratiate his people, and employ the disaffected,
he determined to rebuild the Temple, which, from the lapse of
500 years, and its repeated s:eges, had become, in some parts,
dilapidated and ruinous. At first, the Jews feared that these
professions did but conceal the intention of entirely destroying
their solemn sanctuary ; but the immense preparations before
the work of demolition began, removed the apprehension ; and
with a delight and pride which, for the time, almost gave
Herod favor in their sight, the nation beheld a beautiful fabric
crowning Mount Moriah, with " masses of white marble, and
pinnacles of gold." But at the very time he was thus occupied
as a Jewish king, he retained his character of a Roman vassal,
by presiding at the Olympic games, making such magnificent
donations for their support that he was elected their perpetual
president ; and this man has been denominated the last inde
pendent sovereign of Judea — and the hapless people burdened
with his idolatry and sins — as if he were one of them ! Who
that reflects upon his reign alone, can associate for one moment
the blessed promises of the prophets with the kingdom of Judea
between the return from captivity and their final disper
sion ?

The very sending his two sons to Rome for education,
was a measure directly contrary to the law of Moses. Nor did
it proceed only from his anxious desire to conciliate the Romans
Herod was seldom actuated by but one motive. Looking upon
the sons of Mariarnne as his successors, he probably hoped that
their Roman education would effectually remove all national
prejudices, and render them able assistants in his ardent desire
to Romanize his subjects, and gradually do away with all those
remnants of that ancient superstition which excluded them from
tho conquests and ambition of other nations. The Jews, as
a nation, were never in greater danger of becoming amalgam-

146 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

ated with other countries, than in the reign of Herod ; but still
the God of their fathers watched over them, preserving them for
the sake of His changeless word, as his chosen people still ;
interfering, not visibly, indeed, because of their awful crimes, but
making even their threatening chastisement the means of their
preservation.

The law issued by Herod, decreeing that thieves should
be sold into slavery out of the country, is another manifestation
of his anxiety to adopt every measure for the denationalizing of
Judea ; and from its direct disobedience to the law of Mosee,
was so obnoxious to the Jews, as to annul their rising gratitude for
the rebuilding of the Temple. Nor was his last public act, the
placing a large golden eagle over the great gate of the Temple,
less offensive. It was torn down by two valiant youths, who
were unhappily apprehended, and fell victims to his revenge.
The horrible disease under which he labored increased his san
guinary propensities. Execution after execution followed, till
scarcely a family was spared the agony of bereavement. His
last barbarous order, that all the principal families of the nation
should be seized, shut up in the Hippodrone, and murdered the
instant of his own death, that he might insure a general mourn
ing, was happily disregarded, and the victims spared.

And with such a command, died Herod, misnamed the Great,
in the second year of the Christian era, and after a reign of
thirty -four }rears as undisputed monarch.

He has been termed the last independent sovereign of Judea ;
but even in this brief survey, we have seen enough to convince
us that the Jewish people were never further from national
independence than in his reign ; that though a strong party of
the people still remained zealous and earnest in the national
cause, yet the extreme laxity of the Mosaic code, the fearful
innovations adopted from heathen and foreign customs, the close
intimacy with the Greeks and Romans, must have presented
fearful temptations to the people generally, and hastened that
day of destruction and dispersion, which the eye of Omniscience
saw, could alone preserve His holy law from annihilation, by its
complete amalgamation with the surrounding nations.

PKR10D VI. GENERAL SKETCH. 147

CHAPTER III.

GENERAL SKETCH CONTINUED FROM THE
DEATH OF HEROD TO THE WAR.

FOR nine years the throne of Judea was occupied by Archelaus,
the son of Herod and his sixth wife, Malthce, a Samaritan.
Little of national interest occurred during that period except a
constant reference to Rome (for the claims of Archelaus were
disputed by his brother, Herod Antipas) — repeated insurrections
of the Jewish people, and, in consequence, numberless executions
— and the increasing power of the Romans within Judea, who
overspread the country, and ruled with such despotic hand, as
to cause innumerable adventurers to spring up, collecting daring
bands around them, who, either as robbers or fanatics, increased
the wretchedness of the people. Archelaus appears to have
neither possessed nor exercised any kingly power. In fact, we
can scarcely regard him either as a Hebrew or a Hebrew king.
His marriage with Glaphyra, the widow of his brother Alexander,
and the mother of children by him, was in direct disobedience
to the law of Moses, and consequently very obnoxious to the
people : and so completely were himself and his kingdom in the
power of the Romans, that the emperor would not even allow
him the title of king, recognising him simply as the Ethnarch
of Judea. In the tenth year of his reign, he was suddenly
summoned to Rome, and thence banished to Vienne in Gaul,
and all his estates confiscated. From that hour, though one or
other noble Hebrew was continually rising, with claims to the
sovereignty, Judea sank into a Roman province, dependent on
the prefecture of Syria, with a subordinate administration of its
own in a Roman governor, generally of the equestrian rank —
and recognised in history as Procurator of Judea.

Coponius, Marcus Ambivius, Valerius Gratus, and Pontius
Pilate, successively enjoyed this office. During the reign of
Caligula, we again read of the Jews being persecuted for their
religion. That emperor, anxious to be universally acknowledged
*s a god, was furious that a nation of captives (for such the Jewa

148

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL,

actually were) should dare to worship other than himself, and
treated them with even more severity than any other of his sub
jects. In Rome, Syria, and Egypt, the nation felt the effects of
the imperial tyranny ; but its only effect was to draw them yet
closer together, and increase the value of that sacred religion,
which both foreign and native princes seemed so determined to
undermine.

In Alexandria, *heir sufferings eq jailed the previous cruelties
of Antiochus Epiphanes. The Roman Prefect of the period was
Flaccus Aquilius, whose tyrannical oppressions even surpassed
those of the Emperor himself. He was the first to deny the
Jews then rights of citizenship ; and this without the smallest
provocation on their part. Two quarters of the city were
occupied by Jews, though many were also scattered about the
other parts. Without any given reason, they were ordered to
remove into a district so small, that they were compelled to
spread along the sea-shore, and take refuge even in the
cemeteries.* Their homes were pillaged, the contents of their
magazines and shops publicly divided; pestilential disorders,
from the heat and famine of their cooped-up abodes, broke out
most fearfully, and when rendered desperate by their condition,
they left their assigned quarter — a general massacre ensued.
The sword and club, fire, scourging, suffocation, all were employed
against them. Neither man, woman, nor child escaped ; and
this continued, until, at length, the arrest of Flaccus, by order
of the Emperor, put an end in a measure to these atrocities.

In Babylon also there were persecutions, whose origin our
readers will find in the authorities so often quoted, Josephus and
Milrnan. In Judea images were raised all over the country, and
nn edict issued to place the statue of Caligula in the Temple of
Jerusalem. Once more the national spirit was aroused.
Thousands of the Hebrews of either sex, and every rank and
age, unarmed, and clad in sackcloth and ashes, traversed the
land, solemnly protesting their intention to sacrifice their lives
rather than consent to this awful profanation of their Temple.
Petronius, an upright and humane man, sought to dissuade them
from their resolution, urging the power of the Emperor, the
submission of other nations, and the horrors of war.

* Will not this remind us of a modern persecution 1 Alas ! the Histor?
»f the Jews can scarcely ever be considered Past.

PERIOD VI. GENERAL SKETCH. 149

" We have no thoughts of war," was their unanimous reply:
** but we will submit to be massacred rather than thus infringe
our Law :" and they fell with their faces to the ground, boldly
offering their throats to the sword.

The humanity of Petronius delayed the execution of the
imperial mandate, on pretence of allowing time for the statue to
be finished ; but it was to a native prince, yet more than to
Petronius, that the Israelites owed their security.

On the early and romantic history of Herod Agrippa, the son
of Aristobulus and grandson of Mariamne, we cannot here be
permitted to linger. He had been taken to Rome by his
mother Berenice directly after his father's murder ; and there,
enjoying the favor and friendship of many noble Romans, had
passed his youth. His varied fortunes might fill a volume.
We can here only make such mention of him as is connected
with this general sketch. Caligula had made him king of
Gaulanitis, Batanea, and Trachonitis, and Tetrarch of Galilee
and Peraea. The greater part of what had formerly been the Holy
Land in consequence belonged to him ; but Judea was still
possessed by Rome.

Though educated in the Roman capital, and continually
residing there, even after he was termed King of the Jews,
Agrippa appears to have retained that strong feeling of nation
ality, and earnest love for his country and religion, so peculiai
to the valiant founders of the Asmonaean race. On hearing of the
disastrous alternative proposed to his countrymen in Judea — the
desecration of their Temple or their entire destruction, he invited
Caligula to a banquet, and treated him with such extraordinary
splendor as to excite the astonishment of even that luxurious
Sovereign, who, in the moment of enjoyment, desired him to
ask a boon, which he swore to grant. The true Asmonaean
blood flowed in the veins of the grandson of Mariamne. It
was easy to have asked increase of dominion— of revenue — and
thus have aggrandized himself; but not such was his request!
lie entreated the repeal of the fatal edict ; and, after a struggb
between wounded pride and his attachment to the petitioner.
Caligula consented, and the decree was suspended.

The murder of Caligula followed. Agrippa alone paid him
the last honors. He could forget the vices of the man in the
attachment of the friend. The peaceful acknowledgment of
Claudius as emperor was mainly attributable to this Jewish

150 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

prince, and Claudius did not forget the obligation. The inves
titure of all the domains of the great Herod was conferred on
Agrippa ; Judea and Samaria were once again united with
Galilee, Persea, ana the provinces beyond Jordan — forming one
independent kingdom, which a public edict proclaimed as a
donation from the Emperor to Agrippa ; between whom a treaty
was formally concluded.

Once more, then, for the brief interval of three years, did the
Hebrews breathe in religious and moral freedom. Once more
the reins of government were held by a native prince, whose
Asmonsean descent rendered him universally popular, save to
some stern zealots, whose factious spirits were ever on the watch
for turbulence and blood. Once more we seem to associate with
a people following the Law of God, ruled by a prince whose
most ardent desire appeared to follow the statutes of Moses with
the utmost exactness! Daily sacrifices were offered, legal
impurities strictly prohibited, taxes remitted, the religion and
comfort of his people made his first object ; while the munifi
cence and splendor of his court, the sumptuous buildings he
erected, surrounded him with all the pomp and power of an
independent Sovereign. His brief reign, marked as it is with
such meek and gentle authority in the Sovereign, such calm and
peaceful nationality in the People, shines forth like a bright star
amidst the troublous wars and stormy clouds of awful darkness
which it followed and preceded. Its beams had power to dis
perse, for a brief interval, the dim shadows of the PAST ; but the
black wings of the FUTURE gathered round and shrouded up its
mild light in such awful darkness that we almost forget it ever
shone.

The death of Agrippa, while it occasioned the deepest grief
amongst the Hebrews, excited the most brutal exultation
amongst the Greek inhabitants of Csesarea and Sebaste. The
cause of this enmity appears an impenetrable mystery, Agrippa
having treated them with unvarying kindness. Their insolent
conduct occasioned Claudius to command the cohorts in their
city to remove into Pontus, and their places to be filled with
draughts from the legions in Syria We are particular in men
tioning this, because Josephus believes it to be the primary
caase of the Jewish War. The mandate of the Emperor was
not executed ; but the disgrace was equally the same ; and,
"ankling in the hearts of the troops, exasperated them yet mor«

PERIOD VI. GENERAL SKETCH

151

against the Hebrews, and incited those horrible acts of oppres
sion and cruelty which at length goaded Judea into a general

revolt.

The son of Agrippa (who bore the same name) being consi
dered too young°to succeed him as sovereign, Judea relapsed
into a Roman province. Agrippa remained at the court of
Claudius, imbibing Roman feelings and Roman principles, so
completely to the exclusion of nationality, as caused him, in the
war which followed, basely to adhere to the Roman party, and
to nake no effort to ameliorate the condition of his countrymen.
He appears to have lived occasionally at Jerusalem, it Alexan
dria, and at Rome, enjoying at the former city the title of King,
and the power of appointing High-Priests ; but otherwise his
was a very empty dignity— the real government of the country
resting in the hands of the Procurators. Rome, however, was
his usual residence ; its luxurious enjoyment being more accord
ing to his vitiated taste than the bold stand for independence
which his unhappy countrymen were making. The term of his
death is uncertain ; but he died, as he had lived, forgetting the
calamities and ruin of his country in the morally degraded, but
physically secure condition of a Roman vassal. He was the last,
either of the Asmonajan or Idumean race, who bore the title of
King.

Meanwhile, Zadus, Tiberius (an apostate Egyptian Jew, and
consequently yet more odious to the people than the Romans
themselves), Cumanus, Felix, Festus, Albinus, and Florus, had
been successive Procurators of Judea ; occupying a period of rather
irore than twenty years — a term brief in itself, but fraught with
increasing misery to the inhabitants of Palestine. Each Pro
curator appeared more oppressive, more exacting than the last.
Insults from the Roman soldiery, constantly accompanying those
religious forms and ceremonies, which, in consequence, had
become yet dearer, were answered by fiery spirits ripe for ven
geance ; and this, of course, was followed by indiscriminate
slaughter of the Jews. Massacres of hundreds, even of thou
sands, took place under every Procurator, not only in Judea but
in Syria ; and we are told that, after the defeat of the Romans
under Cestus by the excited Hebrews, the citizens of Damascus
massacred ten thousand of their Hebrew brethren, notwithstand
ing their own wives were all attached to Judaism.

Pillage and insult, of course, accompanied these fearful

152 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

massacres. ^ All legal authority was at an end. Though
the high priesthood was retained, the temple worship continued,
the outward ordinances of the feasts and fasts observed, yet the
beautiful laws, guiding not only communities but households,
were swallowed up in the vortex of oppression, insult, and
misery, which, under the administration of Florus, reached
its crisis. The evil passions of man were alone visible. Kob-
bers and assassins, the last blaspheming the mild law of Moses,
by pretending its authority for their deeds of blood — were
amongst the Jews themselves — and devastated both pro
vince and city. Divided within themselves — so goaded by

oppression, that the dictates of humanity were unheard party

spirit utterly preventing that national union which alone could

hope for success — without a leader — without a plan for

the most part regardless of the laws of either God or man ;
such was the condition of the country on the eve of its general
revolt. Darkness, morally and mentally, had gathered round ;
and it was no marvel. The return from Babylon had been
granted as a trial of their return to their God and the pure
worship of their ancestors. He inspired a heathen sovereign to
grant them liberty and independence. It was in their p*ower
then to have come back, heart and soul, to the pure and faith
ful observance of His law, to the making the Land of Promise
once more a Holy Land — resting on the blessing, the guidance,
the sovereignty of their God. He gave them free will to choose ;
and we have seen that choice : — a union from the first with sur
rounding nations, a lingering amidst the heathen lands, or invi
tations to the heathen within their own — adoption of heathen
customs — faithful in the hour of persecution, only to relapse
into indifference when the iron rod was withdrawn— the Priest
hood, the Sovereignty stained with crimes, even to read which
causes the blood to curdle — alliance with the Heathen Mistress
of the world, instead of that pure reliance on the Eternal
to increase prosperity and dominion, which His law ordained —
the holy religion he deigned to teach, so fitted for every class
and condition of men, split into opposing factions, arming each
against the other — statues and images desecrating the Temple
and the land, erected indeed by the Romans, but originating
primarily in the Jewish assimilation and alliance with that
nation. Was it marvel that the Eternal, in His justice, should
make the sin of their assimilation with other nations the verv

PERIOD VI. GENERAL SKETCH. 153

means of their punishment ? — and that the power they had
courted, flattered, made voluntary submission to (because
the Roman name was omnipotent in earthly glory, earthly
greatness, forgetting that if they trusted in and served their
God, llis word had gone forth to make them greatest amongst
the nations) was it marvel that that power should be the instru
ment in the Eternal's hand to execute His wrath ? We shud
der at the horrible oppressions of which we read. Its human
agency must excite our abhorrence, as it would the anger of
the Lord ; but on themselves the Jews had hurled it ; they
reaped the wretchedness their own hands had sown.

But let it not be supposed, in the fearful state to which
the nation was reduced, that there were none to uphold the glory
of the Lord, and be his witnesses on earth. In the tumultuous
annals of the period — in the vast and whelming ocean ot
despair and misery and crime, how may the historian discern
and bring forward those who were yet faithful and accepted ser
vants of the most high God? Yet even as the Eternal pro
mised that Israel should never cease from being a nation before
Him, so has he equally promised that He would never be
without his witnesses on earth ; and, therefore, are we bound to
believe that even in this awful epoch of Jewish history, aye,
throughout its dark annals of previous years, there were yet, as
there "had been in the days of Elijah, "seven thousand who had
not bowed the knee to Baal." In every faction, every party,
there were noble and faithful spirits of either sex acting or endur
ing a martyr's part — leavening many a mass of otherwise foul
iniquity, and as acceptable to the Almighty as the saints of old.
We see them not, we know them not, for not on earth may we
" discern between the righteous and the wicked" — not on earth
may their fate be distinct— not in the threatened vengeance of
the Eternal might a miracle interpose to protect His faithful
from the destruction waiting the rebellious and the sinful, but in
His heaven, the distinction between him that serveth Him and
him that served him not, was made. And therefore did he permit
universal misery and destruction to whelm all on earth, as a warn
ing to the nations, as a witness of His word, a fulfilment of his
threatened wrath for disobedience ; preparing for the thousands
that had not bowed the knee to Baal, such transcendent glory
and unspeakable happiness with Him that the evils they had

154 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

endured below seemed but as "a watch in the irght,"— -or
as the transient pang of " yesterday when it is passed."

In this rapid ana very imperfect sketch of the history of
Judea, from the return from Babylon to the commencement of
the war under the administration of the odious Florus, A.C. 66,
we have seen how little of rest or independence she enjoyed—'
that in fact massacre and persecution even for religion may
be dated many years, even centuries, before the general dispersion
— that the national divisions of tribes, both of land and people,
were entirely lost — the throne not once occupied by that roval
branch of David which the Eternal has so expressly promised—
that the Jews had settled by their own will in various parts
of the word besides Jerusalem. And, having seen all this, do
we need more than a knowledge of our own history to refute the
assertion of our adversaries, that our return from Babylon
fulfilled the prophecies ? Shall we not rather, in deepest grati
tude and consolation, take them to our hearts and believe
in their fulfilment YET TO COME! rejoicing even as did the
venerable Akiba, who laughed when his companions wept,
at beholding a fox run out from the place where the Holy
of Holies once stood; and, being asked the wherefore of
such unseemly mirth, replied by inquiry wherefore they wept :
" Should we not weep," they answered, " when we see the curse
so clearly verified : ' for the mountain of Sion, foxes shall walk
upon it !' "

"And therefore do I laugh," replied the venerable man.
I' Whilst the evil remained unaccomplished, there might
have been doubts entertained for the fulfilment of the good
promised by our prophets; but now, when we see the evil
coming to pass, can we possibly doubt the eventual fulfilment of
the consolation of Zion, and does not God rather reward
than punish?" And shall we not also rejoice; for Akiba'a
hope is ours !

PKRIOD VI. — THE MARTYR MOTHER. 155

CHAPTER IV

THE MARTYR MOTHER.

IN a time so fraught with national confusion, foreign alliances,
treacherous peace, or destructive war, as the period which our
aketch comprises, history reveals but little to aid us in our
attempt to delineate the character and condition of our female
ancestors. Yet that little is most important, tending ananswei-
ably to prove the exaltation of our social position, the elevation
of our individual character, and also to convince us that there
was not a single law then in force that could, either morally,
physically, or socially debase us. We shall find the influence of
woman actuating man, in more than one instance, for the evil
unhappily, also with the good ; but the very power of the evil
is, as we have before said, an argument in favor of our equality
and freedom.

During the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes, the
sufferings of the women of Israel must have been as fearful, as
their constancy and fidelity were powerful proofs, of the perfect
adaptation of the Law of the Eternal, to their temporal and
spiritual wants. Never could a religion which made them soul
less slaves, have become so dear, so part of their very hearts,
that it was easier to endure torture, and slavery, and death
rather than depart from it themselves, or refuse its privileges to
their infant sons. Eighty thousand persons, men, women, and
children, slain in the forcible entrance of Antiochus within Jeru
salem, and forty thousand of both sexes sold into slavery, was
the horrible preface to the misery which followed. Every
observance of the Law, from the keeping of the Sabbath and the
Covenant of Abraham, to the minutest form, was made a capital
offence. Yet, in spite of the scenes of horror so continually
recurring, the very relation of which must now make every
female heart shrink and quiver — yet were there female martyrs
baring their breast to the murderous knife, rather than bow
down to the idol, or touch forbidden food. Women, young,
meek, tender, performed with their own hands the Covenant of

156 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Abraham upon their sons, because none else would so dare th<s
tyrant's wrath; and with their infants (for whose immortal
souls they had thus incurred the rage of man) suspended round
their necks, received death by being flung from the battlements
of the Temple into the deep vale below ; others were hung, and
cruelties too awful to relate practised upon others. Yet no
woman's spirit failed ; and what must have been their attach
ment to their holy religion, what their sense of its responsibility,
and its immortal reward, what their horror of abandoning it
themselves and cutting off their sons from its sainted privileges,
to incur martyrdoms like these? It is useless to argue that
persecution always creates martyrs, as opposition kindles con
stancy. The religion degrading or brutalizing woman never
yet had martyrs. The Catholic, the Protestant have had their
martyrs in young and feeble women equally with ourselves ;
because their religion, founded upon ours, shares its heavenly
privileges and spiritual love, and twines itself so round a wcjnan's
clinging breast, that it is far easier to die for it than live without it,
by apostasy and falsehood. But where do we find a Mahomedan
female enduring martyrdom rather than forsake the religion of
the Prophet (so called) ? History does not present us with one
example ; and why ? The reply is easy. We will not say one
word against the religion itself; because, equally with the
Nazarene, it is doing the work of the Eternal, and teaching
many nations to worship the one sole God. But its doctrine
degrades woman in very truth to be the slave of man — gives
her neither temporal nor spiritual privileges — treats her, looks on
her as a being without soul, or, if possessing one, created even in
Heaven only to minister to man's pleasures.* Is it marvel then,
the Eastern women are now indeed degraded, or that amongst
them we should nevsr read of martyrs 3~ But not such were the
women of the East when it was peopled by the nation of the
Lord !

Where, in the vast tomes of history, sacred or profane, shall
we find a deed more heroic, a fortitude more sublime, than 5s
recorded of Hannah, the Hebrew mother, during the persecution
of Antiochus ? We read in the second Maccubees. chap. vb\

* Such at least are its reported doctrines. We cannot vouch for tlier
truth or falsehood, not knowing sufficient of the religion iteelf, or i'3 fol
lower*.

PERIOD VI. THE MARTYR MOTHER. 157

confirmed also by all our Hebrew writers, that a mother and
her seven sons were taken, and brought before the tyrant ;
who, in the wantonness of cruelty, commanded them to eat tho
forbidden meat, commencing first with the more moderate tor
ment of whips and scourges, but heightening them gradually to
tortures, which we leave our readers to peruse in the chapter we
have quoted: for the soul sickens to dwell upon them, as
deliberately to write them down : we will content ourselves with
repeating the words they spake in the midst of +hose appalling
sufferings ; for surely they are in themselves witness of what the
religion of the Eternal taught.

u What wouldst thou ask or learn of us ?" the first said :
" We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of oui
fathers." And as his brethren beheld his lingering torments,
instead of failing, they exhorted one another, and their mother,
to die manfully, saying thus, " The Lord God looketh upon us,
and in truth hath comfort in us, as Moses, which in his song,
witnessed to their faces, declared : and he shall be comforted in
his servants." To the second the question was put, " Wilt
thou eat ?" under threat of similar tortures, which he had wit
nessed, but in vain. " Thou, like a fury, takest us out of this
life," he said, in the very agonies of death ; " but the King of
the World shall raise us up, who have died for his laws, unto
everlasting life? The third himself stretched forth his limbs
for the torture, saying, " These I had from Heaven, and for His
Law I despise them, for from him I expect to receive their,
again." Inasmuch as the king and those that were with him, mar
velled at the young man's courage, for that he nothing regarded
his pains. The foirth then suffered, and he said, "It is good
being put to death by man, to look for hope from God to be
raised up again for Him ; as for thee, thou shalt have no
resurrection to life." And the fifth, in his dying agony, calmly
looked upon the king, and said, " Thou hast power over men,
but art corruptible ; thou doest what thou wilt ; but think not
our nation is forsaken of God ; but abide awhile, and behold His
great power, how He will torment thee and thy seed." And
the sixth being ready to die, emulating his brothers' constancy,
addressed the tyrant, " Be not deceived without cause : we suffer
these things for ourselves having sinned against God, therefore
marvellous things are done unto us ; but think not thou, who

158 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

takest in hand to strive against God, that thou shalt escapa
unpunished."

Nor was it one alone who thus endured. The Hebrew
mother witnessed these agonizing tortures, done not unto one,
but unto six of her cherished offspring. Yet how do our elders
speak of her : " The mother was marvellous above all, and
worthy of honorable memory ; for when she saw her seven sons
slain within the space of one day, she bare it with a good courage,
because of the hope that she had in the Lord. Yes, she exhorted
every one of them in her own language, filled with courageous
spirit, and stirring up her womanish thoughts with a manly
stomach, she said unto them, ' I cannot tell how ye came into
my womb, for I neither gave you breath nor life ; neither was it
I who formed the members of every one of you ; but, doubtless,
the Creator of the world, who formed the generation of man,
and found out the beginning of all things, will also of His own
mercy, give you breath and life again, as ye now regard not
your ownselves for His law's sake.'"

Quaint and terse as this language is, and devoid of all orna
ment, yet how emphatically it breathes of the extent of this
mother's trial, the struggle with her " womanish feelings," and
her triumph over nature, over humanity, through that super
human faith ! Nor is the trial over. One still remained — her
youngest born ; probably still the tender and best-beloved of his
mother — one round whom the bleeding tendrils of her lacerated
•heart must have clung in such unutterable love ; her last, her
loveliest; and, evidently, from the tyrant's own words, one in
the first and freshest prime of youth, when life has so many rich
enjoyments, it seems doubly hard to turn from them to the
cold, dark grave; and heaven's perfected happiness, to such
ardent spirits, feels dim and distant, compared to the present
joy of earth. We know he was of such an age, and such
aspirings, else the temptations of the tyrant would not have been
couched in promises to make him a rich and happy man, and
take him for his friend, and trust him with affairs, only on con
dition of his deserting the law of his fathers : and when the
young man would not hearken to him, the king called upon the
mother, and exhorted her with many words to counsel him tc
save his life. He believed nature, in such a case, must triumph ;
for he knew not the hope beyond the grave, which could stili

PERIOD VI. THE MARTYR MOTHER. 159

the throbbings of maternal love ; and bid, even on earth, the
A.ngel triumph over the Human — the Immortal shine above the
Mortal !

Calmly she listened to the tyrant's " many words," and then
bowing to him as about to obey, addressed her son in her own
language, " Oh, my son, have pity on me who love thee, and
gave thee suck three years, and nourished thee, and brought
thee up unto this age, and endured the troubles of education, I
beseech thee, my Son, look upon the Heaven and upon the
earth, and all that is therein, and consider lihat God made them
of things that were not, and so was mankind also. Fear not
this tormentor, but, being worthy of thy brethren, .ake thy
death, that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren"
And even while she was yet speaking, the young man said,
" Whom wait ye for ? I will not obey the king's command
ment ; but I will obey the commandment of the Law that was
given unto our Fathers by Moses. And thou that hast been the
author of all the mischief against the Hebrews, shalt not escape
the hands of God ; for we suffer because of our sins ; and though
the living God be angry with us a little while for our chasten
ing and correction, yet He shall return, and be again with His
servants. But thou, O most godless man, and of all others
most wicked, be not lifted up without cause, nor puffed up with
uncertain hopes, lifting up thy hand against the servants of God :
for thou hast not yet escaped the judgment of Almighty God,
who seeth an things. For our brethren who now have suffered
a short pain, are dead under God's covenant of everlasting life ;
but thou, through the judgment of God, shalt receive just
punishment for thy pride. But I, like my brethren, offer up my
body and life for the Laws of our Fathers, beseeching God that
lie would speedily be merciful unto our nation, and that thou,
by torments and plagues, mayst confess that he alone is God,
and that in me, and in my brethren, the wrath of the Almighty,
which is justly brought upon all our nation, may cease." Then
the king being in a rage handled him worse than all the rest,
and took it grievously that He was mocked ; so this man died
undefiled, and put his whole trust in the Lord. Last of all, after
the sons, the mother died. " Let this be enough," the writer
includes, "now to have spoken concerning the idolatrous
leasts, and the extreme tortures."

Enough ? It is enough indeed for every Israelite to dwell

160 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

npon, not with shuddering horror, not with that squeamish
kind of affected feeling which pretends incapacity to look fear
ful truths in the face, but with emotions of intense thankfulness,
that such a record has been left us, bearing such faithful witness
as it does to the true Israelite's belief. It is not merely a record
of superhuman heroism, alike in male and female. It is
not merely a proof of the little moment in which torture and
death were held by the Hebrews, compared with which the far
famed firmness of Spartan and Roman mothers sinks into
nothing. It is the doctrines betrayed throughout, which, reveal
ed at such a moment, must have impregnated the very existence
of the Israelite ; and these doctrines may be treasured up as
invaluable evidences of all which was taught by our Holy Law,
however some may disbelieve the actual Tale of Martvrdom
in which they are disclosed. The books of the Maccabees
in the Apocrypha are on all points the exact counterpart of the
same history in Josephus, and also of Antiochus Epiphanes in
Roll in.

There can be no doubt that the books were written by
a Hebrew for his countrymen ; and therefore the words put into
the mouths of the sufferers must have been the exact transcript
of the Hebrew's true belief. If the doctrine of immortality —
that hope beyond death and the grave — was, as it is reported,
unknown and unrevealed to the Israelites, what could have
inspired, not only the hope itself, but the expression of that
hope, in the very midst of torture and anguish which human
nature of itself could never have sustained ? We have quoted
the words of the sufferers at full length, only to illustrate this
doctrine — to prove, that, all of immortality — of resurrection —
of being with God in Heaven — of re-union there with our
beloved ones — of the transientness of the severest agonies
below compared to the permanency of bliss awaiting us above
— that all was revealed to us, all was known to every Hebrew
— male and female, childhood and age — believed in, acted upon,
ages before the advent of that religion which was the first, her
followers believe, to inculcate such doctrines. In a work
like the present, we may not dilate on this glorious subject
as much as inclination prompts — but oh ! let us not, by present
indifference, by stagnant ignorance, or fearful shrinking from
the idea of death, give our opponents only too much reason
to believe, that to them alone has been revealed the con-

PERIOD VI. THE MARTYR MOTHER. 161

tolation, the glory, the blessedness of the lelief and hope iu
Immortality.

(ireat emergencies will often create great characters ; but in
the narrative which we have been considering, we read some
thing more in the character of the Hebrew mother, than even
the heroism which she displayed. By her close connexion with
her sons, in being brought before the tyrant, and condemned to
share their fate, it is clear that though a woman in Israel, her
influence must have been supposed of some consequence. That
her sons owed their all to her, even to their education, and that
her influence on them was very great, we read alike in her own
words, and in the appeal of the king to her, to save by her
exhortations her youngest born. There is no mention of a
father ; she had probably been from the infancy of her children,
that especially beloved of the Eternal, a widow in Israel.
And in the calm courage, the noble words of each of her sons,
we learn the education she had given. They had probably been
amongst the valiant, though unsuccessful defenders of their
land ; amongst the faithful few, who, in the very face of the per
secutor, dared to obey the law of Moses, and refused every effort
to turn them from their God. Would this patriotism, this
devotedness, have come at the moment needed, had it not been
taught, infused from earliest boyhood — by example as well as
precept ? A mother in Israel could be herself no warrior, but
she could raise up warriors — she could be no priest, but she
could create priests — she could not face the battle's front,
or drive the idolatrous invader from God's Holy Laud — she
could not stem the torrent of persecution and of torture ; but
she could raise up those who would seek the one, and, by
unshrinking death, bear witness to the fruitless efforts of the
other ; and it was these things this heroic mother did. She had
trained up her boys in that faithfulness, that constancy, which
could only spring from virtue*. She must have taught them,
aye, infused it with her very milk, that the pains and troubles
of this world are, in their sharpest agony, but of a moment's
duration, compared with the everlasting blessedness awaiting
them in Heaven. She must have taught them, that death itself
was but a darkened portal, opening into an infinity of glory ,
tliat man might, indeed, have power over this present life ; but
.over the future, what mortal could have dominion ? — that all
they possessed, even to the members of the body, life itself, they

102 THE WOMEN OF I8RAEL.

had had from God, to whom they were ready to resign them
knowing that from him they would be received again — that even
in that extremity of bodily torture, their lot was happier than
that of their tormentor, for their heritage was everlasting, but
his was corruptible, and vanishing with a breath. She must
have taught them in the true spirit of the Law, that, however
persecuted, however sinful in themselves, their nation would
never be forsaken by God ; yet, that it was for their sins they
suffered, not to gratify the exulting tyranny of their persecutor,
but ^ for themselves, for the sins of their hapless countrymen.
Their sufferings in the flesh were to make manifest to the whole
world, God's judgment upon His children for their national
sin ; but that still to the virtuous, even such a death had no
sting, for their earthly sufferings bore witness to injustice; and
their Heavenly reward, to the mercy of their God. She must
have infused within them, that pure beautiful spirit of self-
devotion, which is woman's own, and can only be imparted by
woman to the more selfish, more calculating man, else we
should not find the last and youngest martyr, beseeching God,
even at that terrible moment, to turn His just wrath
from His people ; and that the sacrifice of himself and his
brethren for the laws of their fathers, might be so accepted as to
cause the national misery to cease. All this (and in such
doctrines, how much more is comprised than we can trace in a
brief survey !) she must have taught her boys. We hear her
herself refer to the labors of education, as an additional incen
tive to her son's obedience ; and we must be convinced, that all
their heroism, firmness, self-devotedness sprang from her, and
had become part of their very being, years before such exalted
principles wert thus called upon to be displayed.

Will not this narrative then strongly confirm all that we havu
stated in the second chapter of our second period, as elevating
the position and marking the duties of Jewish mothers ? Will
it not prove that the mothers of Ancient Israel were perfectly
aware of all the responsibility attendant on them, in the edu
cation of their sons — and that they really were included in the
charge of Moses, contained in Deut. vi. 20 — 25. The education
given by this martyr mother to her sons, is an exact illustration
of the manner in which these ordinances were obeyed, including
also the instruction in the history, theocracy, and claims of
Israel down to the times in which they lived. And how wnlrf

PERIOD VI. THE MAR1TR MOTHER. 1C3

this be, if the Jewish female were lowered by social treatment to the
position of a slave or a heathen, on whom no responsibility, no reli
gious duty devolved. Be the narrative itself truth or tradition, it
matters not ; the ancient fathers would never have given woman
that influence and elevation in tradition, which had not its founda
tion in truth — would never have made her occupy that position
m tradition which the ordinance of the law forbade. This
consideration is most important to us : for we are now rapidly
advancing to the period, whence it is said Modern Judaism, in
contradistinction to Ancient Judaism, takes its rise. There will
be many perhaps to agree with the theories formed on Scrip
ture, already brought forward ; but to declare it is Modern, or
•what is termed Rabbinical Judaism, which they condetan. We
hope to satisfy such inquirers, that even in rabbinical Judaism
there is no foundation whatever for the degradation of woman.

And what were the " wages" received by the martyr mother,
for thus " nursing her boys for God ?" Could it be their earthly
tortures, their agonizing deaths ? Alas ! what female heart,
in its first natural weakness, will not shrink and quiver, and feel,
if such must be her wages, how can she nurse her child for God ?
How may she instil such feelings, if torture and death must be
their reward ! Why are obedience, constancy, allegiance, virtue,
said to be acceptable to the Most High, when such is their
earthly end, and the sinful, the faithless, the apostate are spared
and enjoy ? Let us ponder on what was the support, the hope,
aye even at that moment, the triumph, of Hannah.* Did she
feel as if that trial's intolerable agony were indeed her " wages ?"
We know not how a frail weak woman could thus have looked
on, and instead of unnerving them by ciies and sobs, encouraged
them to suffer still. God gave her power (it was not in
humanity), and so increased the strength, the might, the vivid
ness, of those hopes beyond the grave, which she had felt and
realized so long, that the blessedness awaiting her children with
their God, seemed palpably revealed. The veil of flesh, of
corruption, was rent from her mortal eyes, and all which the
Lord had prepared for those that love Him, unseen by human
eye and unheard by human ear, was through her pure FAITH
disclosed ; nothing else could have so sustained her, or given

« She is so called in Rollin, though I know not from what authority
be takes the name.

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the immortal spirit such dominion. We are expressly told
"she stirred up her womanly thoughts with a manly resolve."
Consequently we know and feel, that she had all a woman's
nature. " Take thj death," she bade her youngest born, " thai
I may receive thee again in mercy with thy brethren" Had an
•*ngel from Heaven spoken in her ear these words, she could
not have believed more strongly. " The Lord will of His own
mercy give you life and breath again," she had before said; and
if she had fear when she exhorted her youngest born, it was, not
that he should pass away from her earthly love, but by his
acceptance of the tyrant's proffers, be lost to her in Heareu;
Faith, Trust, Hope, these then were her sustainers : she had
Drought up her children not for Earth, but fci Heaven ; not for
Time but for Eternity ; and she knew that ste should receive
her wages, not from Earth but in His presence, for whom her
boys were martyred ; and can we doubt for a single moment that
those " wages" were received— can we believe in the God of love,
whom Pentateuch, Psalms, and Prophets, all reveal, and yet
allow the faintest shadow of an unbelieving thought to come
across our minds ? Can we with a sceptic's fearful scorn, refuse
faith in another purer, lovelier world, where such noble and
faithful spirits receive their promised recompense, because to
the finite sight, hearing, and wisdom, of frail poor humanity, it
has not been visibly or palpably revealed ? No ! no ! stagnant
and indifferent as Israel may sometimes appear, he never has
thus fallen, never can reject that unutterably consoling revela
tion of immortality, which became his own glorious Heritage,
long long ages before it was vouchsafed to the Gentile world.

By the words " Last of all, after the sons, the mother died,"
and no mention of tortures, we may hope that, if the tyrant
commanded her death, it was comparatively easy, or, which is
our own belief, that the Eternal, in His infinite mercy, Himself
called her to rejoin her sons, never, never more to be separated
from them. ^ The spirit might be supernaturally strengthened,
to make manifest such firmness and faithfulness as would exait
the glory of the Lord ; but the physical powers must have sunk
beneath it. And if the tyrant did indeed put the seal to the
work of butchery by slaying her, he did but forestall the death
which would inevitably have come — and his cruelty in this
instance was mercy.

It may be said, that striking as this narrative is, it cannot

PERIOD VI. THE MARTYR MOTHER 165

hear upon us now, either as guidance or example, and that, even
if it could, it would be impossible for us to imitate the heroism
of which we read. Earnestly we trust that such manifestations
of faithfulness are indeed no longer needed.

Yet that mother's lessons may still be to us as guidance —
may teach us how we should instruct our children, so as to
provide them against the arrows of misfortune, which ere life
close may assail them, either through bodily affliction or mental
woe. Religion, real spiritual religion, will not find resting in
the human heart unless infused — unless made the first great
object in childhood : not to affect with gloom, but inexpressibly
to deepen the enjoyment and hilarity of youth. Affliction may
do the work for us in riper years, and bring the soul to its God —
because earth has become a void — its former pleasures dashed
wv.h poison ; but oh ! it is a fearful thing, when we wait for
affliction to teach us our God — when sorrow must be sent to
bring us to llim. If the mother would but look forward —
— would but sometimes think that the sweet and smiling babe
upon her lap, the laughing girl and merry boy, now playing
in such shadowless glee around her knee, may one day be
bowed down in sorrow, exposed to bodily pain — to bereavement
— to one or more of the numberless sorrows ever incidental to
humanity ; nay, to privation of health, of sight, of use of limb —
will they not, must they not seek to provide them with some
unfailing refuge, some fadeless hope and inward consolation ?
Why are they so anxious to provide for their temporal welfare,
to secure provision for earthly wants, resources of education,
enjoyment, ambition, wealth ? — why fill the infant mind with
every branch of learning, and train it to think, and calculate, and
act ? Why be so careful of all these things, did not the thought
of the Future guide the workings of the Present — did not love
itself become ambition, and future hope inexpressibly heighten
present enjoyment ? And these thoughts, these hopes, are
natural, and right : but why provide only for a future of Success
and of Joy ? These things may be. It may please our Father
in Heaven to fulfil the mother's every wish, and make her child's
future as smiling as its present ; but it may equally please Him
to try that cherished darling in the ordeal of adversity ; and
then, if he have only been provided for a future of prosperity, oh,
what shall sustain him? How may he bear up against the
trials which may be his, as well as of thousands of his fellows I

*C6 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

No ! mothers of Israel : let us ever train our children for a
future, and strengthen them for sorrow as well as for joy. Should
we think our duty done did we provide them only with summei
clothing, and expose them unprotected to the wintry blast and
howling storm ? Might they not with justice reproach us in
the first tempest, if we bade them thus set forth on the journey
of fife ^ However smiling as far as the eye can pierce, is no't
the horizon enveloped in such mists, that we know not whether
it conceal sunshine or storm— and shall we send forth our
beloved one provided only for the one ?

Let it not be thought that, to inculcate piety— that clino-ing
ove of and confidence in God, the only support of menta. or
bodily affliction— demands a relinquishment of the bouyant
hght-heartedness of childhood. Far from it. The peculiar
susceptibility of childhood to emotions of gladness and love
renders the task easy and most blessed (if the right moment
be seized) to lift up the young spirit to the kind and loving
Father who has given so many things to love and to enjoy. And
when the young mind has expanded to a consciousness of the
temporal enjoyments it has received from God, let it rise still
higher, in the tale of that world where there is no sin, no pain,
no change, but where joy and love live for ever— where their
souls will be with God and His angels, if they seek to live there,
and in all they do, and think, and feel, pray and seek to love
and serve the heavenly Father who is so good to them in this
world, and has provided such a home for them with Him
Teach them that sorrow and pain are not proofe of their Father'?
wrath, but of His love— that all he does is love, however we may
not understand it — that much, very much, must puzzle us while
we are on earth, but that we shall understand it all in Heaven,
and till then, if we will but believe He loves us, and all he does
is love, we may be sorrowful and sad for * time ; but we know
He will once more give us joy.

Lessons like these, united with a firm observance of the
ordinances and commands of Judaism, will indeed be blessed to
our children, even though we see not their fruit till long, long
years after the first seeds were planted. Let us not suppose,
because we can discern nothing in the heedlessness, the levity, the
occasiona. faults, even the apparent indifference to spiritual
things, in our offspring, that we have worked in vain. Let
aorrow, let sickness come, and our children will bless Ae parental

PE'RIOD vi. — MOTHER OF HYRCANUS, 167

love which, under God, has provided them with such hopes, such
thoughts, that pain itself is comparatively easy to be borne, and
Borro^v is assuaged. Better, far better provide for adversity a
hundred times, and the provision be not needed, than one case
in which the sufferer shall need religious comfort, and in vain —
and in bitterness of anguish exclaim, " Why was I not taught
to know and love God ? — why not guided in my childhood to
that holy consolation of which I hear others speak, but which I
cannot feel ?" How in the midst of suffering can we teach that
God is Love ? How can the bruised and broken spirit lift up
its thoughts to heaven, when it has, until that moment, been
chained to earth ? If the soul, in health and joy, has not been
taught that it has wings, wherewith, even in its earthly shell, to
fly to heaven, how may we hope to use them when they lie
crushed and broken beneath the heavy hand of woe ? It is vain
to hope it ! Then, oh ! — would we do our duty to our children
— would we indeed provide for their future — would we have
them recall us, with the tenderest love and deepest gratitude,
loner, long after we may have passed away from earth ? — let us
imitate the Martyr-Mother, and, clothing" them for affliction as
well as joy, nurse them from their infancy for God ; and we shall
indeed receive them once again in mercy from His hand— and
in His presence for everlasting.

CHAPTER V,

MOTHER OF JOHN HYRCANUS. WIFE OF JOHS

HYRCANUS. ALEXANDRA.

THE victim of Antiochus was not the only instance of singular
heroism and self-devotedness amongst the Mothers in Israel
Her sacrifice of all natural feelings, which we have been regard
ing, originated in a faithfulness and constancy to a persecuted
faith — a resolution to dare all the torture of Earth rather than,
by disobedience and apostasy, lose the glories of Heaven. This
19

'6S THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

was love of faith and race ; we are now to behold patriotism as
strong and fervid a feeling in the woman of Israel, as in the
women of the Gentile nations, whose deeds are trumpeted bv
fame.

Simon, the last of the heroic Maccabaean brothers, and the
General arid High Priest of Judea, was inveigled bj his son-in-
law Ptolemy, to the fortress of Jericho, and there, at a banquet
assassinated. His eldest son shared his fate • and efforts were
made m the same treacherous spirit to capture John Hyrcanus,
himons third son, at Gazara. The young man, However
escaped the danger, and, appearing in Jerusalem, was univer
sally acknowledged as the successor to his father, Prince and
High Priest of Judea. Burning with desire to avenge the death
of Simon, he marched with his forces instantly to Jericho.
1 tolemy had, however, obtained possession of the mother and the
brethren of Hyrcanus, and with his captives shut himself up in
a strong fortress m that town. Hyrcanus instantly laid his
plans for a close siege ; but drew back appalled as he beheld
J mother and brothers exposed on the walls, scouro-ed and
tortured before his eyes, with the threat if he did not instantly
withdraw his forces, they should be put to death. Josephus
expressly tells us, that the force of Hyrcanus was stronger than
Ptolemy's, « but he was rendered weaker by the commiseration
he had for his mother and brethren," a touching proof of his filial
affection. _ He knew that Ptolemy, in conjunction with Antiochus
Sidetis, king of Syria, was seeking to overthrow Judea, and
therefore, danger to his country as well as a father's murder
called upon him to capture Ptolemy. But still he hesitated \
would have withdrawn, had not his heroic mother stretched out
her hands imploringly towards him, beseeching him to heed her
not, but to revenge the cruel treachery done unto his father
Torture and death for herself and her children awaited her;
but still, with noble and unshrinking courage, she called on
Hyrcanus to renew the siege. While the spirit of son and
warrior absolutely quailed before, only witnessing the suffering
of his mother, the mother and the woman failed not under their
infliction. What was her life (she probably felt), and even the
life of her two young sons, compared with those treacherously
Main, and with the valiant and energetic warrior who still
remained ? Why should her sufferings so unnerve his stalwart
arm as to tempt him to raise the siege, and so perhaps expose

PERIOD VI. MOTHER OF HYRCANUS 169

him to the displeasure of the people, who, though they had so
lately made him Prince and Priest, might turn from him with a
breath ? The wife and mother of Asmonaeus, she had imbibed
their spirit, and displayed it when most needed. Their captor
flung indelible disgrace upon his manhood, by seeking terms
AT ith his foe, through the torture of a woman ; but fearlessly
she scorned alike the torturer and his tortures ; she could not
fear death, for she was a woman of Israel, whose sure and stead
fast hope was fixed above.

Inspired by her heroic words, Hyrcanus recommenced the
siege with vigor, but at every fresh cruelty offered to his mother
he appears to have relaxed ; and thus, according to Joseph us,
the siege was protracted to the sabbatic year, when all offensive
warfare was forbidden ; and in consequence, he withdrew his
forces ; but his withdrawal did not save his mother ; Ptolemy
slew both her and her sons, and fled to Philadelphia ; and his
tory mentions him no more.

There is nothing in this anecdote to interest us as women, in
a domestic point of view. The mother of Hyrcanus is brought
before us, only as a noble-minded heroine, who cared not for
personal suffering, so the murderer of her husband and son was
brought to justice, and her country rid of his treacherous
intrigues. We do not hold her up as an example to our young
countrywomen, because we trust that they will never be exposed
to such a trial, and we have not enough of her to know if her
previous life were in accordance with the heroism displayed in
peril. We must not allow admiration of greatness to usurp the
place in our hearts due to the admiration of goodness, more
especially as we are always c?(led upon to cultivate and display
the latter, ard not once in a century, not one individual in a
thousand, required to make manifest the former. Admiration
of greatness, if too much encouraged, occasions a neglect of
goodness ; seeking for opportunities to make manifest the one*
we overlook the innumerable opportunities in our daily life to
prove the other. The one lives but in excitement, the other at
home ; and modern women must be content to exchange the
one for the other, or their lives must be unhappy ; for in these
matter-of-fact prosaic days, where shall we find adventures to
make us feel and act as heroines ?

Not to call forth romantic admiration, have we brought this
incident forward, but simply to prove that, in time of need

1 70 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Israel as well as every other nation had her great and noble-
minded heroines. Qualities such as the mother of Hyrcanua
displayed, are the offspring of freedom only. The affection, the
reverence borne her by her son, deprived him of his wonted energy
unnerved his heart, and bade his sword lie powerless. This
marks the distinction between a heroine of Israel and a heroine
of savages : even amongst the latter we may find the heroism of
endurance, but not the filial affection, which would pause in the
midst of a triumphant career, appalled and powerless, because a
mother suffered. The affection of Hyrcanus is even a more con
vincing proof of the elevation to which the woman of Israel
( ould attain, than her own fortitude ; while her address, and its
inspiring effect, must convince us that the men of Israel dis
dained not to derive increase of courage and of firmness from a
woman's lips : and would this, could this be, if it were the man
date of their law to degrade and to enslave her ?

A still more powerful proof of the perfect equality of the
women in Israel, in the eyes of their husbands, and of all the
people, is the curious and important fact, that more than one
sovereign of Israel left his kingdom to his WIFE. Now this is a
custom, or even an instance, found in the annals of no other
nation, except in the Semiramis of Babylon and the Catharine
of Russia ; and these became queens, less from the will of their
husbands than their own successful ambition. Whereas, in
Israel, it never appeared to excite surprise, even though the tur
bulence of the people or the rebellion of sons prevented the actual
government of a queen, except in one instance.

That the wife of John Hyrcanus should have had such a
monster for her son as Aristobulus the First was her misfortune ;
but his violently depriving her of the authority which his father
had left her, does not at all interfere with the bequeathment itself,
or lessen the importance of the facts derived from that bequeath
ment. Joseph us tells us, speaking of Aristobulus, and of iis
ambitious design of changing the government into a kingdom,
" He also cast his mother into prison, because she disputed the
government with him ; for Hyrcanus had left her to be mistress
of all. He also proceeded to that degree of barbarity, as to kill
her in prison with hunger." The extreme cruelty of his con
duct marks his fear of her influence, and the people's support of
her authority. That Hyrcanus left her to be " mistress of all"

PERIOD VI. SA10MI. 171

?f:ry forcibly proves the high esteem in which he must have held
her, even if that bequeath ment devolved on her an office which
it was impossible for her sex to hold, that of High Priest. We
are rather to suppose that he left to her judgment, which he
had no doubt previously well proved, the choice of a successor
for that office from amongst his sons, and the rest of the
administration to be retained by her. Had she been unfitted
by insufficient mental ability, for the retention of this high and
responsible office, Aristobulus need not have proceeded to
extremities. Whereas we read her capability, influence, and
authority, in the awful measures which this monster of barbarity
adopted. Far happier would it have been for her to have occu-
pieJ a domestic station in Israel ; but her story is a strong con
firm, .tion of all we have advanced.

Already had the opposing factions of traditionists and anti-
traditionists appeared in Judea. The former, under the name
of the Pharisees, insisted that the observances which they had
handed down to the people, though not written in the Law of
Moses, were equally obligatory. The latter, under the cogno
men of Sadducees, rejected them as obligatory, and adhered only
to the written Law. We only mention this important fact, to
add weight to our argument, that neither traditional nor written
Judaism could authorize the abasement of women either socially
or domestic, as we shall find the Pharisees giving all their power
ful support to a female's authority, which could hardly have
been, if tradition forbade her to assume it.

The death of Aristobulus, who had succeeded in changing the
government into a kingdom, left the nation without an acknow
ledged head. Antigonus, the next brother to Aristobulus, had
been murdered by his orders, and his three other brothers
retained in prison. One might suppose that the nubility of the
nation would at once have proceeded to action in the choice of
a sovereign ; but we find a woman acting for them. Salome, the
wife of Aristobulus, instead of retaining the regal dignity herself,
which it is very evident she might have done, chose the wiser
Oviirse of acting. We do not read of her taking counsel with
any one ; but, entirely by her own will and pleasure, and on her
own authoritv, she released her husband's brethren from prison,
and made Alexander Jannieus king. Her individual power and
authority must undoubtedly have been great, or she could not
have thus acted. Nor could she have been an ambitious woman '

l?2 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

but we do not hold her forth as a good or amiable character
BO little being reported of her ; and that little, if we are to
believe the words of Josephus, not in her favor. Her
independent authority and undisputed influence are all we
need as evidences of the freedom and equality of her social
state.

The Feign of Alexander Jannasus lasted twenty-seven years,
varied by foreign wars and domestic seditions. A fearful
vengeance on his disaffected subjects in Jerusalem, however,
produced peace ; and, for the remainder of his reign, his iron
rule retained them in subjection. His foreign policy had been
equally successful ; and many conquered provinces were added
to his hereditary possessions. When, however, he was seized
by a mortal malady, three years after his subjection of the
insurgents, he trembled for the fate of his kingdom. A turbulent
and angry people, and provinces so newly conquered, were
little likely to submit to the rule of women and children. Yet
still we do not perceive any change in his resolution, founded
on the customs of his country, to leave his kingdom to his
wife.

Instead of taking counsel, we find him summoning his wife
Alexandra to his bedside, and giving such advice as forcibly
manifests her power to follow it. Even granting that he did
not say the exact words which Josephus puts into his mouth, yet
the Hebrew woman must have been quite capable of undertaking
the solemn responsibility, and of accomplishing all he desired^
or Josephus himself, well acquainted with the customs and
habit^of the strict Jews, would not have had- the veracity of his
narrative doubted, by giving her instructions which a fettered
position must have entirely prevented her fulfilling.

Fully aware of the desolate and painful position5 in which she

and her children would be left by the death of her husband

*' She came to him," as Josephus says, " weeping and lament
ing;" but Alexander roused himself from the stupor of his
mortal illness to give such advice as would secure the kingdom
to her and tranquillity to the people. He bade her conceal his
death from his soldiers till the fortress (Ragabah, near Jordan)
which he was besieging, had been subdued ; and then to march
to Jerusalem in triumph, place his body in the h*ands of the
Pharisees, whom he had so mortally offended during his life, to
do with as they pleased, and promise to conduct the affairs of

PERIOD VI. ALEXANDRA. 1*73

government under their advice and approbation. "If tliou
dost but say this to them," Josephus makes him continue, " I
shall have the honor of a more glorious funeral from them than
thou couldst have made for me ; and when it is in their power
to abuse my dead body they will do it no injury at all, and
thou wilt rule in safety."

And his wise policy was followed. That he should have
given such to his wife must suppose a perfect conviction on his
part that her sex would be no hindrance to its performance ;
and that he had perfect confidence in her abilities for the task.
Surely, then, wives in Israel must have held a very distinguished
position ! We know that no statute in the written Law existed
to their disadvantage ; and we must be equally sure that there
was none in the traditions, else surely Alexander would not
have desired his wife to throw herself upon the mercy of a set
of men who, if tradition contained a single statute confining her
to an inferior and powerless position, rendering her a mere
nonentity before God and man, would have been actually
compelled, from their own guiding laws, to deprive her of all
authority, refuse obedience to her husband's bequest, and drive
her ignominiously from her inherited throne.

The Pharisees were strict, orthodox, unyielding traditionists,
enthusiasts, and zealots — often led on to mistaken violence by
their excess of zeal — exposing themselves a hundred times
during the war to increase of misery and torture from their
unshrinking adherence to the minutest point of traditional laws.
Yet these very men not only permit a woman to ascend the
throne of Judea, hold the reins of government, levy troops,
have complete dominion over her sons, who were both of suffi
cient a^e to claim the crown themselves, but actually defend
her upon it, and, even on her death-bed, demand her counsel,
refusing to decide themselves while she was alive, however ill
she might be. The anti-traditionist may persist in his belief
that the woman of Israel is degraded, and bring forward
detached sentences from our venerable teachers wherewith to
prove it ; but, with the history of the past so vividly before us,
we heed them not at all.

Alexandra appears fully to have possessed the necessary
qualities for the cautious mode of proceeding which her husband
advised. Her very first action proves her capable of immense
sontrol and strong fortitude, else she could hardly have preserved

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the secret of her husband's death, and so pushed forward the
siege as to succeed in conquering the fortress. She must have
been well acquainted with the secrets of military command, of
retaining a tumultuous soldiery in obedience: for all orders
supposed to be sent them from their dying king, must have had
their origin jn herself alone. Had she had advisers, the secret
of Alexander's death could not have been preserved, and its
very first rumor would most probably have occasioned revolt.
The brief notice of the historians : " So Alexandra, when she
had taken the fortress, &c." " Alexandra followed the counsels
of her husband, &c." "His widow Alexandra immediately
adopted the policy, &c. ;" gives but a weak idea of the painful
and difficult position in which she was placed.

A widow mourning for her husband with no common grief,
for the emotions of Eastern women can scarcely be measured by
those of the North, yet not daring either to evince her own
natural sorrow, or give the dead its due respect ; an army with
out a head, dependent entirely on herself for their present
measures to end in victory or confusion; — a kingdom still
quivering and brawling in civil discord, ripe for insurrection,
enraged with their monarch, yet standing in such awe of his
terrible severity that, as long as they believed him still living,
all ^thought of active rebellion was paralysed; — this was no
enviable position for a feeble woman, even though her fortitude
and talents were adequate to the emergency. Did the secret
of his death transpire before she could obtain the ear of the
Pharisees, she knew that the flame of civil dissension would
light up from one end of Judea to the other ; and who might
prophesy the end ?

Nobly she must have averted this evil. The soldiers of
Israel were not unaccustomed to female heroism. The chroni
cles of their ancestors told them of a Deborah, of the female
savior of the citizens of Tekoah, of Abigail, of Esther, and in
later times, of the martyr mother and the noble wife of Simon ;
*nd therefore, that a woman should mingle in their ranks, and
urge them on to victory, was no matter of astonishment. The
fortress was gained, and a triumphant march brought them to
Jerusalem, accompanied as they still believed by their dying
king.

What then must have been their surprise, when, summoning
the heads of the Pharisees, Alexandra committed into theii

PERIOD VI. ALEXANDRA. 175

keeping the dead body of the king, and the soldiers learned
that it was no commands of a warrior, but a woman s self who
had thus led them on to victory. This action alone would
have dazzled the eyes of the multitude, ever eager for excite
ment; and united as it was with the popular measure of
brincrincr the Pharisees into power and favor, and re-establishing
the traditional forms and practices which had been abolished by
John Hyrcanus and his sons, but which were greatly endeared
to the people, secured her their love yet more. Her giving the
body of her husband to his bitterest enemies, was hailed as a
proof that she had never approved of his conduct. BJia a very
brief interval fixed her securely on her throne.

But though great authority was thus lodged in the hands o»
the Pharisees, the Queen was evidently a free agent in indi
vidual administration. She made her elder son Hyrcanus high
priest, as a matter of course. Fortunately for the peace of the
kingdom his indolent character prevented his meddling with
the°politics of the day; high priesthood and kingdom owned
the same acquiescence with the measures of the Pharisees : but,
white Hyrcanus permitted himself to be a. passive agent in their
hands his more energetic and enterprising mother pursued her
own active and independent course. Instead of sinking into a
mere shadow of a sovereign, because her domestic government
was so circumscribed, she newly organized and increased the
power of her armies by levying large bodies of mercenary
troops, and striking terror into the hearts of all the surrounding
nations. Hostages were demanded and sent; so that the
depredations and petty warfare which had so often harassed tie
borders of Judea in the reign of Alexander, were effectually
prevented, and the whole land was at peace. ID all these
foreign affairs, Alexandra acted alone. The Pharisees were
much too busily employed in their home administration, and in
their desire to obtain summary vengeance for all the insults
which their body had received in the previous reign. More
especially they demanded justice on those who had assisted in
the massacre of the eight hundred men who had fallen victims
to the severe vengeance of Alexander four years previous.
Aristobulus, the queen's second son, who had long felt with
gecret indignation his exclusion from all power, seized
opportunity to put himself at the head of the oppressed party ;
and seekin^ the presence of the Queen, appealed, not to her

176

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

mercy alone, but to her justice, reproaching her with " ingrali
tude in thus abandoning the faithful adherents of her husband
to the vengeance of their enemies."

It was a difficult position for the queen, thus appealed to by
both parties ; but her extraordinary sagacity triumphed even
over this. She saved them from the wrath of their enemies by
permitting them to leave Jerusalem, enrolling them in the
garrisons of the frontier cities, and gave Aristobulus, whose
restless intrigues were likely to endanger the peace she had so
labored to attain, the command of a large army, rominally to
check the depredations of the petty prince of Chalcis, but
secretly to obtain possession of Damascus. The prince was
successful in accomplishing both his mother's object and his
own. Damascus was taken,* and the army, a very considerable
one, was won over and strongly united to his personal interests.
Alexandra reigned nine years, a breathing time of peace for
her distracted country, which only waited for her death to plunge
again into all the miseries of civil discord, the issue of which
was complete subjection to the power of Rome. The advice of
Alexander regarding the Pharisees certainly aided the domestic
peace which lasted during the government of his wife ; but a
less enlightened, less energetic sovereign, could not have so
triumphed over the difficulties of the age. There is no little
wisdom in knowing when and how to submit when submission
is required, and yet in so retaining individual dignity and self-
respect, that the station we occupy may continue its proper
elevation in the minds of common men, who so often pay to
state the homage they refuse to worth. Alexandra was more
truly beloved and venerated by the multitude, than any of the
sovereigns who preceded or succeeded her ; and this would not
have been had she succumbed to the power of any party. She
allowed the political administration to be carried on by the
favorites of the people ; but she was no idle cypher in their
hands. She kept peace between the adverse bands by a
measure which no weak or fearful disposition could have
counselled. She guarded her kingdom from all foreign
aggressions ; and her people, both in her capital and in the

* According to Milman : Josephus says he did nothing considerable
at Damascus ; but, from the issue, we incline towards the opinion ol

Milrnsin

PERIOD VI. ALEXANDRA. 171

provinces, were prosperous and happy. Even the turbulent and
ambitious spirit of her younger son did not dare display itself
during the government of his mother ; though, the very hour
that the dangerous nature of her illness was rumored, he stole
away from Jerusalem, unknown to all save his wife, to visit
alternately the fortresses of his friends, and so secure their
subjection and allegiance to himself.

Ill, and suffering from a mortal disease, the flight of Aristo
bulus at first occasioned the queen little uneasiness ; I jut, when
many messengers came with the tidings that fortress after
fortress had submitted to the prince, and he was, in fact, lord of
almost all the strongholds of the country, his design became
apparent both to the Queen and to the Nation. The latter,
or more properly speaking, the immediate followers of the Pha
risaic administration, were struck with consternation, fearing the
vengeance of Aristobulus for the insults offered both to his fol
lowers and house. From a careful consideration of the Queen's
conduct, and reply to the nobles and Hyrcanus, when they
sought her on her death-bed, and demanded her final counsel, it
appears to me that her own affections and wishes sided with her
younger son. She must have intimately known the character
of both. Her own experience had taught her that energy, firm
ness, activity, were all imperatively needed to secure the peace
and prosperity of the kingdom, and to preserve the popular
party at its proper distance from the throne. In these qualities
she must have long known Hyrcanus was greatly deficient. His
extreme inertness had been of little importance when merely
High Priest ; but would subject both himself and his people to
the dominion of a party the moment he ascended the throne.
Yet he was the elder, and was rightful heir. Aristobulus, it is
true, had all the qualities necessaiy for a monarch of Judea
at that period ; but he was not the heir according to seniority,
and he was the known enemy to that party whose influence
with the factious multitude had so long aided in preserving
peace. To nominate Aristobulus was to wrong her first-born,
and plunge the kingdom into civil discord with her dying
breath. To nominate Hyrcanus, was to behold the same
evils, only at a greater distance; and in such a painful position,
alike as a mother and a sovereign, her answer to the nobles was
a wise one. They had demanded her counsel as to the present
posture of affairs; for that, in effect, Aristobulus was lord

1?8 THE WOMEN OF I S R A E f, .

of almost all the kingdom, and that it was useless and absurd
for them to take counsel by themselves, while she was yet alive,
how ill soever she might be ; — words somewhat convincing how
completely Alexandra had contrived to retain her own authority.
Here are the elders of the Nation, men grey in years and wis
dom, acknowledging and obeying both scriptural and tradi
tional laws, coming to a weak and dying woman, and demand
ing her counsel as their sole guidance in a dangerous emer
gency. What would this prove regarding the social position
and mental education of the Hebrew women ?

But with death and eternity so near, what had the Queen of
Judea further to do with life and time? How could th«
mother's heart, lingering with both her sons, wrong one at
the expense of the other ? How could the amiable and peace-
loving sovereign send forth from her death-bed, such decrees as
would wring tears of blood ? Yet, how appear before her
Maker, if her last words breathed such advice as her heart
denied ? It could not be, and therefore, " she bade them
do what they thought proper to be done — for they had many
circumstances still in their favor; a nation in good heart,
an army, and money in their several treasuries. For herself,
she had small concern about public affairs, now, when the
strength of mind and body had already failed."

Surely, these were not the dying words of either an
ambitious or an intriguing woman, but simply of one glad
to lay down the toils and cares of government, and seek
that immortal peace and blessedness, which, as a woman of
Israel, she knew awaited her above. She died soon afterwards,
at the age of seventy-three. She must, therefore, have been
sixty-four when she first ascended the throne, an age which
ought to increase our admiration of the courage and energy
which she then displayed. We can imagine a young woman,"or
one even in the prime of life, nerving herself for such a difficult
task as the concealing a husband's death, and carrying on
a military enterprise with such skill that conquest followed ; but
to a woman of sixty-four, from whom all the glow, the romance
of life, we imagine, has faded, the task must have been more diffi
cult still.

It proves that her youth had been one of energy, intellect,
and active usefulness, or age could not have thus displayed
them. That she had been accustomed to receive the confidence

PERIOD VI. ALEXANDRA. 178

aa well a<? the affection of her husband ; that he had associated
her in his civil and military government, by confiding in hei
bosom all his designs, else it would have been impossible
for her at the age of sixty-four to claim, and to retain monarchi
cal power. The people must have known and loved her as
a wife in Israel, or in her unprotected widowhood they would
never have accepted her as their queen. Her sons must have
been taught her superiority in rank to themselves ; been accus
tomed from boyhood to regard her, 51 she survived, as the suc
cessor to their father before themselves, or they would have dis
puted her authority; the law and traditions must both have
permitted the sovereign power to rest in the hands of a female,
or all Israel would have risen up against it.

We are not now considering the subject in its political bearings
as to whether such a system of monarchical succession be
a wise one or not ; but simply in a national view, as it marks
the condition of woman in Israel, even at a period when national
sin and civil bloodshed were desecrating the Holy Land of the
Eternal, and the pure beautiful spirit of his Holy Law was con
cealed beneath the tempest clouds of bigotry and superstition on
the one side, and of laxity and indifference on the other. Yet
still, through the infinite mercy of God, shining forth upon some
faithful hearts in the ranks of both.

The summing up of Alexandra's character and administra
tion by Josephus, is one of the most extraordinary specimens
of historical contradiction man ever compiled ; we subjoin it in
a note* for the perusal of our readers, assuring them that if they

* " A woman she was, who showed no signs of the weakness of her
eex, for she was sagacious to the greatest degree in her ambition of
governing." So far, leaving out ambition, he is correct, but here follows
a most incomprehensible sentence: " She demonstrated by her doings at
onre, that her mind was fit for action ; and that sometimes men them
selves show the little understanding they have, by the frequent mistakes
they make in forms of government ; for she always preferred the present
to futurity, and preferred the power of an imperious dominion of all
things ; and in comparison of that, had no regard to what was good, or
what was right. However, she brought the affairs of her house to such
an unfortunate condition, that she was the occasion of the taking away
that authority from it ; and that in no long time afterward, which she had
obtained by a vast number of hazards and misfortunes. [What weie
they? Her husband's will!] And this out of a desire which does not
belong to woman, and all by her compliance with those who bare ill-wdi
•o her family and by leaving the administration de.-titute of a proper su.i»

180

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

can come to a satisfactory conclusion as to its real meaning W6
shall feel really obliged to them, if they will impart it for' our
especial benefit. Meanwhile, we will take leave, very humbly,
to differ from the reverend historian, and regard her reign and
character in a light which strikes us as doing the most justice
to its subject In the first place, Josephus talks of her " ambi
tion of governing," her obtaining the crown through hazards
and misfortunes, and all out of a desire which does not belono-
to a woman ; and we can discover nothing of the kind. She
came to her husband weeping and lamenting the desolation
which would be hers on his death. Surely if she had ambition
(a desire which we quite agree with Josephus does not belong
to a woman), then was the time to display it, and urge .ier hus^
band to take measures for her succession. She was not the first
wife to whom the crown had been left, though the only one per
mitted to reign ; but that there was a precedent in the annals
of her country, permitted her surely to regard her right to the
throne merely as a matter of course. Then, again, the " hazards
and misfortunes," which he tells us she risked to gratify her
desire of imperious dominion, what were they ? Simple and
exact obedience to a husband's dying counsel, his will confirmed,
arid her accession not even disputed, or occasioning a dissent
ing murmur. We can discover no trace whatever of her
neglecting the "right" and "good" to increase a despotic
power; and we rather think Josephus himself would find it
difficult to prove it from his own account of her. Her prefer
ring present peace and prosperity, and seeking to confirm such
blessings to her people, surely cannot be deemed a fault; and
how the miseries that followed her death can be imputed to her,
as the historian so sapiently seeks to prove, passes our poor
comprehension. Let us suppose a moment that she had not
succeeded her husband, and the crown had descended, as in
the right line of succession it must, to Hyrcanus, Alexander's
elder son. What would have followed ? exactly the same evils
aa took place after Alexandra's death ; the quarrels of the

port of great men and indeed, her management during her administra
tion, while yet alive, was such as filled the palace after her death with
calamities and disturbances. However, though this had been her man
ner of governing, she preserved the nation in peace." Most extraordi
nary how she could, if so many errors of character and government could
»e laid to her charge 1 — Seo Josephus, vol. ii. p 397.

PERIOD VI. ALEXANDRA. 181

brothers, each supported by a powerful party, and final appeal
arid subjection to Rome. The national sins and departure from
the Eternal, by amalgamation with foreign powers, were rapidly
advancing, Israel was hurrying forward his own fearful destiny
in exact accordance with the prophecies of God. He was
not only sinning against God sins by which no one was injured
but himself; but darkly, fearfully, terribly against his brother
man. The sins of Aristobulus the first, against his mother and
brother, were, unhappily, neither without precedent nor repeti
tion. They were but the preface to others quite as horrible and
more extended. The nation was rapidly approaching that fear
ful state pictured by the prophet when the Lord bade him,
" Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy
and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their
ears, and understand with their hearts, and convert and bo
healed ;" meaning, that the sins of the people were such, that
they had turned away the mercy of God from them; and,
refusing to bestow on them the softening spirit of repentance
and amendment, because they neither prayed for nor sought it,
he left them to their own impenitent and sinful inclinations ;

and, in consequence, they hurried on their own awful destiny

the destruction of their Temple and city, the desolation of their
land, and their dispersion over the whole world. And this fear
ful state of ^ things had already commenced. The reign of
Alexandra, instead of her mat-administration, causing the
" calamities and disturbances" of which Josephus so unjustly
accuses her, actually averted the tempest for nine years. The
Bible gives us more than one instance of the judgment of the
Lord being turned aside for a certain period, even though it may
not eventually be averted. The reign of Alexandra appears to
us one of these breathing times ; obtained History tells us not
how ; but (reasoning, as the earnest study of God's holy Word
would bid us reason) it was permitted through His infinite
mercy from the intercession of those few noble and trusting
hearts, still faithful to Himself. How know we that Alexandra
herself might not have been one of these ? The scanty and
contradictory records of the time will not permit our upholding
such an idea as proven truth ; but it is more accordant with the
history of her administration and its issue than the charge of
Josephus, " that the miseries which followed were attributable to
her." Where were the great men whose assistance, we are to

182 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

suppose from Josephus, she neglected ? In placing part of tha
home administration in the hands of those who had borne ill-
will to her family, we can simply trace the loving obedience of
a faithful wife to her husband's dying counsel ; and her own
anxious desire to secure the welfare of her people, even by the
sacrifice of her prejudices. Surely such a course of acting is the
wisdom of a sovereign. The conquest of our own prejudices,
the acting exactly contrary to one's own will, is not less difficult
for a monarch than for ourselves ; nor less meritorious when
achieved. Why then refuse her the admiration which, in this
instance, is certainly her due ? Yet, with all this unjust cen
sure, and charges which have no solid foundation, Josephus
allows, " that she showed no weakness of her sex, was sagacious
in the greatest degree in the power of governing, and preserved
the nation in peace." Now how could she possibly be sagacious
in the power of governing, if her mal-administration were the
cause of all her country's after misery ? How could she have
neglected all that was right and good if, in such fearful times,
she had yet preserved the nation in peace ? a measure which no
male sovereign had yet been able to accomplish. Surely we
must all feel that such contradictory assertions are of very little
worth ? and our best means of coming to a just conclusion is to
ponder, not on what followed or came before, but simply on
what she did, and on the age in which she lived.

To our own feelings, tinctured perhaps as they are with
national warmth, Alexandra appears far more worthy to occupy
a place in the annals of female sovereigns, than many who have
found eager hearts and talented pens, to bring them forward,
She achieved no great victories, it is true — she enlarged not the
boundaries of her kingdom. We read of no dazzling connexions
with foreign potentates, which, though throwing a lustre over the

Eages of history, were incompatible with that obedience to the
aw which was to make Judea a land " holy unto the Lord."
Like a true woman, on whom the calm, sober wisdom of matur
ity has descended, she preferred peace to conquest ; and she
obtained it.

It is an idle sophistry to attempt lessening the dignity and
tmnness of her character, by the assertion, that the peace of the
kingdom was owing to the supreme power having been placed
in the hands of the Pharisees. Her wisdom manifested itself in
the very bestowal of this power, and in yet so retaining her own

PERIOD VI. ALEXAN.DRA. 183

independence as to be in power, as well as in name, the head of
the state — in so acting, so counselling, that the Pharisees must
have felt that all they did, though in strict accordance with thei*-
own sentiments, was in reality mere obedience to their sovereign
This consciousness it must have been, which compelled theii
appeal to her on her death-bed. " It was absurd for them to
take counsel by themselves while she was yet alive." Are these
the words of men in whose hands was the whole power of the
kingdom, so that the regal dignity was a mere cypher ? No —
though it was a woman who swayed the Jewish sceptre, a woman
who sat upon the Jewish throne, and placed there by the suffra
ges of a whole nation, obeying and acknowledging tradition as
well as scripture — the sovereign dignity was never more .nobly
held. Man could scarcely have so triumphed over the age.
His desire for absolute power, his ambition, restlessness, and his
ungovernable pride, all would have made him regard concession as
humiliation. The delicate manoeuvres of leading, when the most
trifling error would bring disaster — of commanding and enforc
ing obedience when we must otherwise obey — of retaining in
subjection wills which the weight of a feather may turn to the over
balancing our own — these are politics too delicate for man, and
not attainable to ordinary women.

But Alexandra was no ordinary woman. She united the mas
culine energy, the grasping intellect of man, to the delicate tact
of her own sex ; and, by the combination, exalted her sovereign
power, and so triumphed over the difficulties of the age, that
well is she deserving of the love and veneration of her descend
ants, — well worthy of her own glorious descent.

It is greatly to be regretted, that in the records of historical
personages, so little is given us of their domestic life. Too often
history, though accurate, is the mere surface of things, and
Truth we are told lies at the bottom of a well, not on its frothy
surface. We ought, therefore, to accustom ourselves to search
deeply for it, not to be content with receiving it merely second
hand. Now, Truth is often elicited, by using not only our intel
lectual but our imaginative capacities. The first permits us to
examine and compare ; to reflect and condense ; and to exclude
the peculiar prejudices of the author whom we read, and looking
steadily on the bare fact, trace its causes and its end. And yet
we shall not find this exercise of the intellect or reflective power,
perfectly satisfactory, unless we can combine and unite all those

184

THE' WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

distinct and separate thoughts into one perfect whole by the
Dower of imagination, or creation. We are aware that imagi
nation has been called a dangerous gift, as leading to folly and
romance. Unite it with RELIGION and INTELLECT, REASON and
TRUTH, and bless God for its bestowal, either on your children
or yourselves ! It will penetrate the imperfect records of the
PAST. It will look calmly on the contending storms and dark
pictures of the PRESENT, for through them it will trace the same
calmly guiding hand, working the progression of mank'nd,
to be visible only when the PRESENT becomes the PAST ; and
piercing the impenetrable folds of the FUTURE, become almost a
prophet in its pure foith of things which will be, human and
divine. But deprive imagination of these glorious guardians _
Religion, Intellect, Reason, and Truth— and then, indeed, exor
cise it as you would a fiend !

Now, though history tells us nothing of Alexandra's domestic
character, the exercise of Reason and Imagination may fill up
the vacuum, and give us the information that we need. Let it
be remembered, she was sixty-four when called upon to occupy
a public station. Would her sons have submitted to her
authority even if the customs of the country authorized her suc
cession^ unless accustomed to that reverence and obedience,
which, if rendered to and deserved by a mother in Israel, as the
law of God commanded, might easily be transferred from a
mother to a sovereign ? Josephus puts words in the mouth of
Aristobulus which, as they are in direct contradiction to the will
of his father, we do not believe he ever said ; or if he did, it is
proved they were the mere impulse of momentary passion, by
their having no effect in turning even his own party from their
allegiance.* Had it been mere ambition which placed his mother
on the throne, as he dared to charge her, his was not the spirit
to have submitted quietly. No ; in the very postponement of
his restless intrigues till her death, we read what power she must
have exercised over him, both as his mother and his sovereign.
As there is no mention of Alexandra during the lifetime° of
her husband, the qualities she afterwards displayed must all
have been cherished, cultivated, exercised in her domestic sphere ;
and in the respective duties of wife and mother. To the WOMEN
in Israel was always intrusted the solemn responsibility of the

* Josephus' Histor Antiq., book xiii. chap. 14.

PERIOD VI. ALEXANDRA. 185

education of MEN. We have already expressed our own convic*
tion that mothers were associated with the fathers in the religious
instruction of their sons (see 2d Period, chap. ii. p. 155);
and innumerable precepts, in the valuable writings of our vene
rable fathers,* confirm this so strongly that no doubts can be
entertained of their individual and social capabilities for the task ;
or of the consideration and reverence in which, as the accomplish
es of such a mission, they must have been regarded by their
countrymen. Again, we repeat, we are no longer writing of
Bible times ; but of Judaism nearing the advent of Christianity
— that very epoch when it is stated that Judaism had so fallen
from the institution of the Eternal, that it was to pass away from
Earth and give place to a new and reforming creed. With
regard to woman's position we see this charge is wholly fa'se.
The writers of the Talmud wrote of woman, her solemn mission,
duties, and responsibilities, as the law of God commanded, and
as they witnessed. And how could the education of the men
of Israel have been intrusted to her, had she not been
universally, and from the very first, recognised as mentally and
spiritually on a perfect equality with man ?

Having received their education, not only as boys, but in
early manhood, from their mother, it was far more natural that
Ilyrcanus and Aristobulus should quietly yield allegiance to her
as their sovereign, than by demanding the regal authority
during her lifetime, sink her to a lower grade, and compel her
submission to themselves. The exquisite beauty of the laws of
Israel, guiding the conduct of children to their parents, would
have been insulted by such proceedings. We can scarcely fail
to be struck by their practical illustration of the law in the very
customs of the country, that the wife of a deceased sovereign
should reign before his sons. If she could educate them for the
duties of a sovereign, she was certainly capable of governing in
her own person ; and this, then, reveals the secret of her wise
administration. Whether or not a wife should outlive her hus
band could only be known to God. The minds of the
daughters and wives of royalty could never be cultivated only
in the expectation of succeeding to the throne. No such

* For this and other allusions henceforward to the Talmudic writings,
the author is indebted to the valuable and kindly imparted information of
a gentleman well known by the initials T. T.

186 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

ambition could have tarnished the lustre of the studies trey
pursued, or the acquirements they attained. They studied,
thought, practised, tnat example as well as precept mi "tot aid
them in their glorious task. Not for their own spiritual and
temporal aggrandizement, but for their sons. In Israel it was
not enough for mothers simply to give birth to men: it was
theirs to tram and to create them ! How different, how gloriously
superior to the system of a contemporary nation,* where the boy
was taken from his mother's arms at the tender ao-e of seven
and deemed effeminate and weak if he ever sought her com
pany again !

Minds accustomed to such exercise (for the education of men
could be no light and merely feminine task), were of course
capable of individual energy and exertion when called upon to
make such qualities manifest. Alexandra had exerted energy
too long and nobly in her domestic and maternal duties, during
her youth, for it to desert her in her age. There was no need
tor preparation to perform the monarchical duties ; for, in pre
paring her sons for such destiny, she had prepared herself.
I hat her sons did not reflect back her noble qualities, and failed
alike m the unambitious patriotism and anxiety for her people's
happiness which she so earnestly displayed, cannot and may not
be traced to a defect in education. Very seldom is it that a
mother's anxious work is so rewarded that her sons are exactly
what she has prayed and striven that they should be. It is not
the fault of the trainer but of the trained; the assumption of
individual character, the budding forth of individual sin, which
not the tenderest, the most careful education can ever entirely
disperse. It will do much, very much ; and, though it may not
expect always to be rewarded upon earth, it is never wholly use
less. How know we what the evil might have been, had we
not sought at least in part to subdue it? The characters of
Dyrcanus and Aristobulus might have been very different had
they lived in other times; but, in a period of such terrible social
iniquity, the forbearance practised by Aristobulus alike towards
his mother and brother in her lifetime, is sufficient confirmation
that, however she may have failed in making them all she
wished for their country, she had at least impressed them with
the strongest reverence and submission towards herself. ID

Sparta.

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 187

h Appier times the character of both brothers might have shone
forth with untarnished lustre ; as it was, they mingled with and
were lost in the fearful vortex of the age. The nation was
hastening on its own annihilation, and their unfortunate dis
pute, and its consequent reference to Pompey, hurried on the
and.

We have lingered on the character of Alexandra, because it
u a most important one, as concerns us nationally ; although,
perhaps, as women in general, we may derive less instruction
from it than from others. The characters tf history, however,
cannot be to us like the characters of the Bible. We are no
longer perusing inspired records, where example as well as
precept can breathe the voice of God. Our aim now can be
only a national one. To throw together every notice of the
Hebrew women our history will present, which will prove their
social and domestic positions, their mental capabilities, their
responsibilities : all which will convince us that ancient and
modern Judaism is the same. There is not the division which
the caviller or the ignorant have raised up between them. Let
us not then be charged with a change in our style and subject
if the present notices read more like historical memoirs than the
home-speaking essays of the characters of Scripture. We
leave to our Seventh and last period the conclusions to which
the history of our Sixth will lead us — the moral and religious
lesson which, even from History and its imperfectly sketched
personages, may still be learned. Even did it give us no other
mention of woman than the wife of Jannteus, we should possess
enough to satisfy us, that we need no other than our own
religion for our earthly elevation and our spiritual hope.

CHAPTER VI.

MARIAMNE.

THE I Jumrean dynasty was on the ascendant, the Asmonceaii
the decline ; yet the people still turned to the remaining

188 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

scions of their native princes, with such constancy and affection,
that Herod, though politically triumphant, felt that his claim to
Judea would not be recognised by the multitudes, unless he
associated with him one whose pure Asmonsean blood, enhanced
by her engagirg youth and extraordinary beauty, would win
for him yet more strongly than his own power, the suffrages of
the whole people of Judea.

In the person of the hapless Mariarnne was represented, not
the Asmonsean line alone, but the claims of both brothers,
Hyrcanus and Aristobulus. Alexander, the son of the latter,
married Alexandra, the daughter of the former : and their
children, in consequence, inherited the claims and right of both.
But this was no longer the age for legal succession, or the
recognition of native sovereigns. The people indeed still clung
to the laws and prejudices of their fathers ; and still loved the
descendants of those valiant men who had once saved them
from oppression — but Judea was no longer a kingdom — the
Jews no longer a people. The divisions between brother and
brother had opened a path to the all-conquering Romans. The
line of David, in whom alone the promised monarchy could be
restored, had long since passed away : and in this period of
Jewish history, between the return from Babylon and the final
captivity, we can but trace the gradual yet certain advancement
in national iniquity, prophesied by Moses and every other ulterior
prophet ; when, notwithstanding the faithful obedience, spirit
uality, and love of individuals (ten, perhaps, in every thousand),
God could not withdraw His avenging arm — leaving to that
other and brighter world, in His presence, to distinguish
" between the righteous and the wicked, between him that
serveth God, and him that serveth Him not."

The most powerful impetus to this progression in iniquity,
originated in too close a connexion, and too blind an attachment
in Hyrcanus, for Antipater, an Idumaean by birth, and a Jew
by adoption and semblance. Idumsea had only lately been
united to Judea, and its inhabitants, by the representation of
John Hyrcanus the first, won over as proselvtes to Judaism,
The family of Antipater, therefore, were not Hebrews. Herod,
entitled the last king of the Jews, had no national right to the
title : for he was a stranger and, by his actions, a very doubtful
proselyte. There was, indeed, evil enough in Israel before the
ascendency of the Idumsean family ; but not that utter disregard

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 189

jo nationality, that complete blending with Rome, that intimate
association and adoption of its peculiar characteristics, as in the
reign of Herod ; whose insidious policy to lessen Jewish nation
ality — that no allegiance to the King of Heaven might interfere
with the acknowledgment of his kingdom upon earth — opened
the wide gate of utter destruction for his hapless people. The
web of misery flung by Vespasian and Titus over the miserabl«
Jews, Herod's own Jiand originally wove.

The gallant son of Aristobulus, Alexander, had been murdered ;
and his widow and orphan children found protection with the
powerful friend of Hyrcanus, the Iduma3an Herod ; whose father,
Antipater, had fallen a victim to the hatred of the Jewish faction.
Herod appears to have regarded Alexandra and her children
only as the near relations of Hyrcanus, whose party he always
pretended to befriend. As the widow and children of Alexander,
the son of Aristobulus, whose claims and struggles for independent
sovereignty the Idumseans had always so powerfully and persever-
ingly resisted, we might suppose they would be objects rather of
enmity than of protection. Affection for the person, and gratitude
for the favors of Hyrcanus, there could have been none in the
hearts of either Antipater or Herod ; they supported him simply
because his indolent and confiding disposition placed all the
actual power in their h<inds. With Aristobulus they knew this
could not be ; for he was, according to Josephus, " an active
man, and one of a great and generous soul ;'' and the only
means to increase their own power, they felt, was to decrease his.
When, however, Aristobulus and Alexander were both murdered,
and the sole representative of that younger Asmonciean branch
(except the children of Alexander) was Antigonus, who, notwith
standing his casual bravery and occasional success, appears to
have possessed but little of the Asmonaian spirit, it became an
act of policy to unite himself with the youthful representatives
of both the brothers ; — and Herod acted accordingly.

Mariamne could not have been, at this time, much above
fourteen or fifteen years old, that is, granting she was the senior
of her brother Aristobulus, who, four years afterwards, is said
to have only just completed his seventeenth year. The fierce
and jealous passion which afterwards characterized Herod
towards his young wife, does not appear to have been excited
it the time of their betrothal. He might have been attracted
oy her exceeding beauty ; but the character of the man allow?

190 THE wo MEN* OF ISRAEL

the supposition, that at that period, when all his ambition rrm
to aggrandize and secure his own power for the future, as well
as for the present, he would equally have made this connexion
had the grand-daughter of Aristobulus and Hyrcanus been as
ugly as sin, instead of lovely as virtue and innocence could make
her. Happy indeed would it have been for her, had she not
been thus lovely, and the connexion remained one of policy
alone !

At the time of their betrothal, Mariamne knew little of Herod,
save as one of the most gallant, most enterprising men of the
day. She had been educated in perfect seclusion with her
brother; kept apart, as much as possible, from the fearful
confusions and crimes of the state ; and though she had not as
yet been called upon to put away the thoughts and habits of
youth, and come forward in all the early maturity of Eastern
womanhood, — still it is not unlikely that she was willing and
contented to receive Herod as her destined husband. He could
be as winning, as attractive, and as gentle, as he could also be
terrible in severity and rage. We read enough of his taste for
the arts, his expansive intellect, the magnificent scale of his
architectural, and other civil improvements, to believe that he
was not solely the monster of passion and cruelty which his
later deeds pronounce him. His very intercourse with the
luxurious Romans may have added a manly polish and graceful
manner to the stern reserve of a Jewish warrior ; and these were
not qualities to pass unnoticed in that day. Mariamne supposed
him the friend and protector of her grandfather and mother ;
and if he did seek at that time to win her affections, it was most
likely she could bestow them willingly ? and without repugnance
consider herself as his bride.

They were not, however, then together long enough, for that,
scarcely conscious preference to become real affection.

Awakened to a closely threatening danger, Herod fled with
his family, including Mariamne as his bride, her mother, and
brother to Masada, a strong fortress on the western shores of
the Dead Sea, and near his paternal heritage, Idumaea. The
journey was fatiguing, and so dangerous that Herod, in despair,
had nearly attempted his own life; but his temporal good
fortune did not desert him : he reached the fortress in safety,
and was speedily reinforced by 800 native troops from Idumrea,
uaier the command of his- brother Joseph. This is the first

PKRIOC VI. MARIAMNE.

mention historv gives of Mariamne. Antigonus, whose con
nexion with the Parthians occasioned this sudden flight, never
appeared to remember even the existence of his brothers
children ; and however the intriguing and ambitious Alexandra
micrht have secretly hated the power of her son-in-law Herod,
there was no eluding it, save by making it her own

Four years elapsed ere Mariamne became the wife ot Herod,
and during that period her domestic life must have been tar
from happy. In fact, from her first connexion with Herod, we
may say her sorrows began ; for their rapid flight to Masada,
pursued so closely by the Parthian allies of Antigonus as repeat-
edly to meet in deadly fi^ht, and encounter such dangers that
Herod's own spirit quailed almost to despair, could have been
but an interval of fearful terror, fatigue, and suffering to the
youno- girl only just commencing life. If her affections had
indeed been excited by Herod, the length of his absence the
dangers to which he was exposed, all must have weighed
depressing!/ on a iniud too young by many years for such
heavy cares. .

Alexandra and her children were not the only companions ot
Herod's hasty flight. He took with him his own mother
Oypros, and his sister Salome ; and it was at Masada, in conse
quence, that that fearful enmity between the female members of
his family commenced, which was to dash his whole domestic
life with woe. The extreme youth and purity of Mariamne
permits us the supposition, that, at the time, she herself had
little to do with the bickerings and petty provocations conti
nually passing before her. But her position was a painful and
a dangerous one ; she had not one female friend who could be
the guardian and guide which her youth and beauty so much
needed. The character of her mother, as we see it afterwards
revealed, was far more likely to infuse its own baleful influences
within the young mind and heart, in such perfect innocence
Icokincr up to her, than to strengthen and ennoble Mariamne a
natural hi^h qualities. Yet, how was her child to discover
this ? flow mistrust, and so turn from her only parent nay,
with the sole exception of her young brother, her only relative
upon earth? Alexandra had intellect, policy, and wisdom,
crooked as it was ; and the reverence and love uniting the sons
and daughters of Israel with their parents, must effectually have
prevented Mariamne, at her tender age. from discovering aughl
20

192

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

which could frighten her from her mother's guardianship. Ho*
could she doubt the purity of her mother's love? How divida
the true from the false ? the judicious from the wary ? A judi
cious parent would have taught and practised moderation and
forbearance; wculd, if she had seen the necessity of unitin<*
the pure high Asmonaeau race with the degraded Idumsea£
have bent at least to the necessity, and conciliated the family
of her daughter's husband herself, and led her child to do so
too. But this, to a character such as Alexandra, was impossi
ble ;_ her very subtlety in this instance succumbed to her over
bearing pride. The pure and beautiful spirit, which, guidin<*
the law of Moses, inspired the prophet to promise, in the name
ot the Lord, a place dearer than sons and daughters to the
strangers who, turning from idolatry to Him, kept his covenants
and sabbaths, had been lost in the dense cloud of sin and misery
enveloping Judea. Pride had folded up the Jewish heart
instead of the lucid robe of charity, which the law commanded
and infused ; arid from the insufferable haughtiness of Alexandra
we may trace all the misery which ended not even with the
murder of her child.

To any disposition, the pride and haughty insolence of
another occasion a bitterness of feeling, a desire of retaliation, only
to be conquered by a consciousness of one's position before God
and our own souls, and of the absolute nothing which such pro
vocations are, in our strivings after eternity. But to feel thus
needs an enlightened, a lowly, yet a noble mind ; and not such
was the disposition of either Salome or her mother. Of the
latter, however, we read so little, except in conjunction with
fealome, that we rather suppose her weak than wicked ; too
indolent herself to conspire against another; but willing
enough to follow where a more energetic spirit would lead ; wwL
m consequence, an equal accessary to evil deeds. To Salome
however, no negative terms need be applied; and the only
relief we can discover in the perusal of her history, is that she
was no woman of Israel. Even in that awful period of sin the
daughters of Israel had not thus fallen. Alexandra, indeed,
was evil enough ; but for her a train of fearful circumstances, a
succession of misfortunes from treachery and cruelty, may be
some palliation. In her, some womanly feelings once had exist
ence ; in Salome there were none. The petty vices and faults
of woman were indeed UIQ foundation of all her after-crime* •

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 103

out in the overspreading poisoning torrent of her thoughts and
deeds, we can scarcely believe that its source lay in those small
and often invisible springs of petty faults dwelling in every
vo man's breast.

The extreme beauty of her brother's bride would by such a
disposition have been looked on as an unpardonable crime.
Even ordinary attractions must have sunk to nothing, before the
sweet innocence and freshness of such loveliness as Mariamne's.
Her pure Asmoncean blood, her lineage from a thousand priests,
the ordained of God, and reverenced of His people, all was felt
as a reproach to the haughty Idumrean, who, exalt herself as
she might, could never boast such proud descent ; and when to
these sources of irritation were added the scorn and contempt of
Mariamne's mother, and the daily provocations thence ensuing,
heightened perhaps by the lofty bearing of the object of her
hate herself, all recurring through successive weeks, months, and
years, whilst they were thrown together in one home, which
they dared not quit, because of the dangers awaiting them with
out, and with no possibility at that period of evincing the hate
consuming her, it became concentrated, defined, laid out in
varied schemes, waiting but the opportunity to work, which,
when it came, transformed her from the woman to the fiend.

That she imparted her machinations to her mother^ at that
time is not likely. She was probably contented with infusing
such hatred of Alexandra and her daughter, as would secure her
a willing agent in Cypros whenever she needed one. Provoca
tions which the weak character of Cypros might have been too
indolent even to remember, were recalled and magnified, till the
sting of their recollection so rankled, that even time could not
remove it, and from them hatred sprang. Weak characters are
quite as susceptible of the passions as strong ones ; perhaps
even more, for the latter can be guided by reason, the former
cannot.

Amongst characters like these was the hapless Manamne
thrown without the power 'of escape, for those three or four
years of her young existence, when the influences and impressions
should be but virtue's own. At fourteen or fifteen what could
she have known of life, except as imparted by her mother, her
sole instructress ? And in those three years' residence in Masada,
what opportunity had she to weaken the maternal influence, by
presenting to her notice such noble and high specimens of her

194 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

sex, as would cause her awakening mind to doubt and question,
and without lessening the affection and duty of a child, yet bid
her shrink from qualities and propensities which she could not
love ? Who was there to lead her to the pure unsullied fount
cf woman's virtue, and bid her to conquer the trifling faults of
her misguided education, so that not even hatred could fling its
dart upon her, but enmity itself fall powerless, not from the utter
absence of cause, for, alas ! when did that ever quench hatred,
but of opportunity for its display ?

Such a guide she had not ; and we can only marvel that
under such influences, such impressions, it is only " haughtiness,"
and a " want of moderation," of which the historian can accuse
her. That she should have treated both Cypros and Salome
with some haughtiness was only natural. Her mother's conduct
must have guided hers; and the visible dislike with which she
was regarded by the Idumaeans, could but have fallen coldly
and painfully on the eager heart of youth. In those three years,
her brother was the being to whom, in all probability, Mariamne
clung with all the warm passionate emotions of her Eastern
nature. Nearly the same age, equally lovely, equally gifted, the
affections of the young Asmonaans became concentrated in each
other. It was not to Alexandra, much as no doubt they loved
her, that her children could reveal all the gushing tide of feeling,
hope, joy, and awakening intellect which so characterizes and
blesses youth. The character which a careful study of the
history marks as Alexandra's, could not have bent down to the
freshness and artlessness of her children's. Wrapt in her own
cares, for undoubtedly she had many, and sad ones — her own

vindictive feelings towards the family of lr<?r son-in-law the

present and the future glooming darkly and terribly over her
and hers — her aged father in the hands of his enemy, Antigonus,
who, though his own nephew, scrupled not to deprive him for
ever of the capacity for the high priesthood, by the mutilation
of his ears — Masada itself continually liable to attack and seizure
— and the safety of herself and children continually in jeopardy,
for Antigonus was not likely to forget, if they. were once in his
power, that the youthful Aristobulus, as the son of his eldei
brother Alexander, had more claim to the sovereignty than him
self. These were thoughts, all sufficient to render even a gentle
and amiable character too sadly anxious to enter into the
hopeful buoyancy of youth.

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 19C

Alexandra's haughty and intriguing spirit would bury it all
deep in her own breast, and coldness, indifference, and pride
mark her outward demeanor. Under such circumstances, the
love between Mariamne and Aristobulus could not fail to grow
stronger, more sustaining, and more consoling, with every pass-
in«- year. No affection is purer, stronger, more enduring, and
lovely in its truth, than that subsisting between a brother and
sister, when it does exist ; perhaps it is even stronger when the
sister is by one or two years the elder. It makes them more
twin in age, capabilities, mutual appreciation, and comprehension
of each other, than had the boy the advance in years. It is a
distinct, wholly distinct feeling, to that which actuates sister
towards sister. There, pure and beautiful as such affection is,
it is wholly feminine. In the other case, the highest and noblest
qualities of the brother insensibly infuse themselves into the
sister, banishing in consequence all those petty failings and weak
nesses which are natural to woman ; and all the sister's purest,
most spiritual, and unselfish influences, infuse themselves by the
same process into the heart of the brother, and purify ing it from
its grosser and more worldly nature, make each more worthy,
and more capable of entering into the other's feelings, and so
twine them together, with a fink strong as adamant, and pure
as the crystal fount of love, whence all such affection comes.
But this is no common emotion, or always existing when a sister
and brother are of so near an age. Character and circumstance
may both unite to prevent as well as to create it. Between
Mariamne and Aristobulus, an earnest study of their characters
and destiny seems to prove convincingly that it had existence.
They had none other with whom to divide it ; not even separated
by education, or by Aristobulus being called to war, or to the
Priesthood, as might have been the case had their country been
at peace, and the young scions of royalty occupying their natural
position in their father's court. They shared one common dan
ger, one common lot— were mutually the darlings of their peo
ple — mutually the objects of dread and hate to the opposing fac
tions — mutually of consequence to Herod, whose ambition he
Knew would have no firm foundation, unless secured through
them ; all this combined to unite the natural links of affection
(which assimilating characters had already so closely bound)
with such strength and firmness, that their violent severing was

THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

in all probability the first and final cause of Mariamne's estrange-
men from her husband. Could it be otherwise ?

We have lingered some time on this residence at Masada.
*hich historians in general pass over in five or six lines, being

° U the

d t . ro' o «

deeper into the ongm of those dark and terrible deeds which

towards so devastated his own household. But the object of
our consideration is Manamne, and not Herod; and therefore
we are anxious, by reflection on the early years of her life on
the circumstances which influenced her maturer character, 'and

GStl ltSelf t0 thr°W 15ght on tbose «er portions

P

f - ' ose er portons

of her history which in general are touched upon aloneP In a

knowl 1 tl ,°nn S °Pen t0 US' WG find °urselves scarc^
knowing whether to blame or pity, and certainly quite unable to

form a correct estimate of Mariamne's character? Her fearfW
rials, her early provocations, the dark influences which prevented
ie complete correction of her few natural faults, all these, in the
bare recital of events, are impossible to be discovered, without
that attentive study of causes as well as of events, of the origin
II as of the end, which in a more rapid perusal of History
is not possible to be attained. We have excused our prolixity
3lore, by assuring our readers that our notices of individuals
ire fur more suggestive than narrative, more essays than histories
and can only entreat them to bear with us still ; the characters
ot History demanding the same treatment as those of the Bible
still men eating a moral, though not the same inspired lesson '
ihe three years passed at Masada were not without frequent
attacks from without in addition to the annoyances within.
ihe Pardiian allies of Antigonus overran the country, and
probably frequently threatened the fortress, though we c
not hear of any direct siege till that under Antigoims himseir
which appears to have lasted several months, and to have
exposed the garrison and inmates to dreadful suffering from the
want of water. Meanwhile, Herod had arrived at Rome
and besought Augustus and Antony to confer the sovereignty
of Judea on the young Aristobulus, who united in his own per-
son the claims of both the contending sons of Alexander
Jannaeus and grant him (Herod) the office of governor under
nim. ihe very nature of the request reveals the subtle policy
ie man ; no one can imagine there was any further sincerity

PERIOD VI. — MARIAMNE. 197

in his prosecutbn of Aristobulus' rightful claims, than the fear of
graspin^ too much by the actual demand of the crown for him
self, and so losing all. Besides, had he done so, he lost at once
all the confidence of Alexandra ; whereas, by making her son's
claims apparently his first object, he riveted it on himself,
as the only one likely to give her aid. That the Romans chose
to confer the sovereignty on him instead of on Aristobulus,
could not be attributed to any -indue ambition on his part.
That Alexandra was satisfied that he had at that time done all
he could for her son, appears likely, from her making no effort
for him herself until Herod's resolution to deny him any share
in the government became more evident.

Seven days after his royal appointment, Herod left Rome, and
hree months afterwards was in Judea. Masada was of course
his first object ; the forces of Antigonus, aided by the want
rf water, had nearly reduced it, when a timely fall of heavy rain
relieved the one, and Herod's impetuous attack removed the
other. Mariamne had not, however, very long to renew
her acquaintance with her betrothed husband. He appears
only to have relieved Masada, and instantly departed with
the intention of reducing Jerusalem ; but was foiled by the
treacherous desertion of his principal ally. _ Unable with his
native forces to subdue Judea, he fixed his head quarters
at Samaria, and by his vigilant and energetic measures, freed
the province of Galilee from the bands of robbers with which it
had been infested. The following year he recommenced mea
sures against Antigonus ; but it was not till the spring of the
next year that the siege of Jerusalem was regularly begun.
During the siege Herod returned to Samaria, to complete
his marriage with Mariamne, two years after he had been
made king by the Romans, and consequently nearly five
since their first betrothal. Where Mariamne, her mother and
brother, had been since the siege was raised from Masada,
history does not reveal. We rather suppose that when Here 4
fixed his winter quarters at Samaria, all the females of his
family joined him there. It appears strange that he did
cot solemnize his marriage then, instead of waiting to do so in
the very midst of a most momentous siege. That ambition, not
love, was the original incentive of his union with Mariamne, is
proved at once by this proceeding. He feared that even
the power of his arms would not have secured him the affections

198 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

of the people of Judea, or reconciled them to his conquest
of Antigonus, only that he might ascend the Asmontean throne
himself; and that his obstacle should be lessened, if it could not
be entirely removed, occasioned his sudden resolution to leave
the walls of Jerusalem, and at once unite himself with the
Asmonsean princess. Once really his wife, he probably felt
DO chances could divide them, and so give her influence to
another. The people would second him for her sake ; and out
of regard to his queen, forget he was that Idumsean alien, whom
so many detested, while they feared. The event proved
the wisdom of his policy. At Samaria, the young and
lovely Mariamne became indissolubly his wife, and many
faithful partisans of her father instantly joined him with such
reinforcements as enabled Herod to march with renewed spirit
against Jerusalem. If Mariamne indeed loved Herod at that
time, her life must have been a chaos of anxiety and fear. He
never returned to remain with her, but left her again after
a very brief interval, to encounter renewed dangers. Conti
nually thrown amongst his relatives, whose envy and dislike
were not likely to decrease now she was really his wife, she
must, indeed, have rejoiced, when, after a protracted siege, Jerusa
lem submitted, and Herod was acknowledged sovereign of Judea.
His endeavors to preserve the city from the vengeance of
the Romans, his protection of holy places, and care of the reli
gious prejudices of the people, were all actions likely to elevate his
character in the mind of his young bride. Antigonus had
received his death-doom from the Romans, not from He?od.
Compared with the awful iniquities of the time, his career had
been unusually free from atrocity; and even the unsparing
executions of the Antigonian faction, which followed his acces
sion, his policy, no doubt, knew how to excuse, so as to appear
actual necessity to his wife, and not the relentless cruelty which
they seem to us.

For a few, a very few months, Mariamne may have enjoyed
some degree of happiness and peace. The mass of the people,
devotedly attached to the Asmonaean family, were stilled into
some degree of submission, because she shared Herod's throne :
but too soon even this transient calm was to pass away. Herod
was sovereign of Judea, endured because of his connexion with
the Asmonaean line ; but even this connexion would not permit
his assumption of the priesthood. He, an Idumsean, an alien

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 199

—but a " half Jew," as the people called him, — occupy that
office of solemnity, the delegate of God himself ! It was a thing
unheard of, even in the most fearful annals of Jewish history,
and impossible to be permitted. Herod always appeared aware
of this; for at the commencement of his reign he made no
attempt to assume it nominally, even though the measures he
adopted, proved that he had resolved that all the actual powef
should be his own. Hyrcanus, the father of Alexandra, had been
.nvited to Jerusalem, and treated with great apparent respec*
and regard by Herod, as the grandfather of his wife. The muti
lation of his ears, however, disqualified him from again assuming
the priesthood ;* and neglecting not only the righ fful heir^ to
that solemn office, but many others of noble lineage and high
qualities, in Jerusalem, Herod sent for Ananel, an obscure indi
vidual, but of priestly descent from the Babylonian Jews, and
appointed him High Priest.

This was an insult impossible to be borne with patience, either by
Alexandra or the Asmonaean faction. The office of High Priest had
been hereditary, from Aaron downwards. The law had made no
condition for the exclusion of rightful heirs, save that of being
" without blemish." Youth was no preventive ; and while the
young Aristobulus lived, and united in his own person not only
the claims of his priestly race, but of two contending parties, to
appoint another to the priesthood was an insult to the whole
nation, impossible to be overlooked. The people were in a tur
moil of indignation, but too much awed by the severity and
power of Herod to attempt any popular disturbance ; but all the
mother's feelings were roused to more than passive indignation.
She wrote to Cleopatra, beseeching her influence with Antony,
to compel Herod's appointment of her son. Aided by a musi
cian, her letters were conveyed to the far-famed queen of Egypt,
who complied with the request ; but Antony, unwilling to inter
fere with the civil government of the king he had himself created,
hesitated and procrastinated, without coming to any decision.
Meanwhile Dellius, a man infamous for his licentious conduct,
and the friend and confidant of Antony, visited Jerusalem.
The extraordinary beauty of the brother and sister elicited his
wondering admiration ; and in his secret conferences with

* This proves how faithfully, even at this period, some of the laws of
Moses were still obeyed. " The priests were to be without 'jlemish.*
Levit. xxi. 17 — 24.

200 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

Alexandra, he persuaded her to have their pictures taken, ant!
sent to Antony, who would then he unable to refuse anything
they asked. The horrible nature of this proposal would, we
ought to imagine, have been rejected by a Jewish mother with
indignation and abhorrence ; but, worked on by her ambitious
and intriguing spirit, even these revolting means were adopted,
and the picture sent : and to this woman had the tender years
of Mariamne been intrusted ! From a mind capable of such
black, such unnatural horror, had the pure chaste mind of youth
received its first impressions : and, knowing this, shall we not
almost marvel at the stainless, shadowless purity, encircling the
daughter of such a mother, almost like a halo, rendering her
impalpable, and so transmitting every baleful arrow aimed
against her, as would the atmosphere itself !

^ The honor of Mariamne was, however, in this instance, safer
with Antony than with Alexandra. The fiendish counsels of
Dellius only prevailed upon him to send for Aristobulus ; but
Herod refused to obey, encouraged by the clause in Antony's
letter, not to send the young man, " if he thought it hard upon
him so to do." And no resentment followed. Aristobulus
himself interfered not with the machinations working for and
against him. His youth, his tastes, probably rendered him con
tented with the life of calm retirement which his exclusion from
office permitted ; but the love his sister bore him, her perfect
consciousness of the rights and claims of her noble line, could
not permit her to behold this indignity in silence. There is a
calm dignity pervading the character of Mariamne, even in her
youth, which almost unconsciously impresses us with a convic
tion of her own high sense of her priestly lineage, and its lofty
claims, which no personal danger, no timid consideration, could
ever remove. The daughters and wives of priestly lineage were
looked upon by their countrymen, from the very first delivery
of the law, as sharing the sanctity of their fathers and husbands,
and reverenced accordingly, as higher in station according to
popular decision, as purer and holier in conduct than the wives
and daughters of sovereigns. "We read but too often of royal
unions with the daughters of the heathen ; but never but once of
Buch abomination occurring in the households of the priests.
Pride of birth, of descent, was almost the first impression on the
hearts of the young daughters of the priests ; that they might
preserve both unsullied. And Mariamne was not likely to for-

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 201

get this precious heritage. It was not in accordance with a
descendant of the Asmonseans to regard herself as queen merely
as the wife of Herod. By right of heritage the kingdom was
her brother's and her own : and though the arms of the Romans
had conferred the crown on Herod, how might she behold the
exclusion of her brother from his own hereditary honors, which
it was in the power of her husband to grant or to refuse ?

Mariamne ceased not her entreaties and expostulations till
her boon was granted ; still not so much for his love of her, to
which passion Josephus imputes most of Herod's actions concern
ing his wife's family, but because he felt that, once established
as High Priest, Aristobulus would have no temptation to leave
the country, but would always remain in his power, to be removed
whenever his unscrupulous cruelty deemed fitting. Assembling
his friends, he told them that " Alexandra had conspired against
his authority, seeking, by the aid of Cleopatra, to elevate her
son to his throne — a proceeding doubly unjust, as it would
deprive her daughter of the dignity she now had, and would
bring disturbances into the kingdom. He had, therefore, in his
anxiety to retain it, resolved to give the youth the high priest
hood ; and that he had, in fact, only set up Ananel, because
Aristobulus was so young a child."

We have marked one line of this politic speech in italics,
because it appears to us so convincing, that Herod himself waa
aware that his principal hold, as sovereign of the Jews, on the
people, was his union with Mariamne. The depriving her of
the dignity she now enjoyed, would have been of very little
moment to him individually, if he had not strongly felt that
her dignity supported his, and if one were shaken, so would be
the other.

The appointment of Aristobulus reconciled the people in a
measure to their king, and, for a brief interval, quieted the
intriguing Alexandra. She professed, with many tears, " that
she had never sought the kingdom for her son, nor would she
accept it were it offered ; having that confidence in Herod's
capability of governing as would secure the safety of the remain
der of her family ; that she was satisfied, nay, overcome, by
Herod's benefits, and thankfully accepted the honor showed by
him to her son, praying him to excuse her if the nobility of het
family, and the freedom of acting which that nobility, she

202 THE WOMEN OF 14HAEL.

thought, allowed her, had made her act too precipitately and
imprudently on this matter."

Josephus, who, in his own person, was a great stickler foi
woman's inferiority, would certainly not have put such words in
Alexandra's mouth, if they had no foundation in the customs
and characteristics of the Jewish people. He must have known
that freedom of acting was perfectly compatible with the
Hebrew woman's social position, or she could not have alluded
to, and sought to excuse, it. Nor would Herod, as we shall see
in the sequel, have deprived her of liberty, had he not feared
that she would again use it, to the detriment of his interest.
For a while peace seemed established between these two
equally dark and equally opposing spirits. Mariamne saw her
beloved brother in his rightful position ; and rejoiced that one
subject of contention was thus removed. Her mind was too
pure, too upright, to harbor suspicion of those around her.
How could she penetrate the secret thoughts and wishes of her
husband, or believe that, in the very fulfilment of her anxious
wish, her brother's death-warrant was, in the tyrant's inmost
heart, already sealed ? Glad to escape from the pressure of
care and sorrow which had darkened her early years, Mariamne
probably gave herself up to the delight of her domestic
affections, unconscious of the brooding passions in her mother's
heart, or their provocation by her husband.

Fearful that Alexandra would renew her plots and innova
tions, Herod desired that she should dwell in the palace, his
subtle policy most likely concealing the real reason of this
command, under the same show of reverence and honor with
which he had welcomed Hyrcanus to the same dangerous
precincts. But Alexandra's equally subtle penetration speedily
discovered that her guard, appointed ostensibly in honor of her
high rank, were creatures of Herod, restraining her liberty, and
spies upon her most private hours, and most unguarded words.
Burning with indignation she wrote to Cleopatra, beseeching
her assistance and advice, declaring that she would undergo
anything, rather than continue to live in this state of slavery.
The very indignation which it causes her, proves how little
accustomed were the women of Israel to the faintest semblance
of restraint.

Cleopatra, who appears always to have befriended Alexandra

PERIOD VI.— MARIAMNE 203

(another proof in what light the Jewish female aristocracy were
regarded by foreign nations), advised her to escape with her son
into Eo-ypt, where she promised them protection. Alexandra
eagerly assented. She ordered two coffins to be made, as foi
two dead bodies. In these she intended to conceal herself and
her son, desiring her servants, whom she could trust, to convey
them away in the night time, and bear them to the sea-shore,
where a ship would be waiting to take them to Egypt Tho
scheme promised fair, but was defeated, by its being spoken of
to Sabion, one of her friends, under the impression that he was
already in her confidence. This Sabion, believing its discovery
would insure him favor, betrayed it to the king. Herod
permitted the plan to go on, that he might be assured of its
existence, and discovered the whole at the very moment
Alexandra believed its success complete. Still no outward
evidence of his anger appeared. He stood in too much dread
of Cleopatra's influence with Antony, if exerted against himself,
to adopt harsh measures against Alexandra. With every
manifestation of generosity and kindness, more than likely to
inspire the gratitude and affection of his young wife, he over
looked the offence ; but his unhappy victim was marked for
removal. It seems strange that Herod did not seek the
destruction of Alexandra in the young man's stead, for there
was nothing in his dawning character to arouse a tyrant's dread,
except, indeed, those lofty virtues and outward attractions,
which might mark him as a dangerous rival to the wily
Idumsean. Still, though resolved in his diabolical purpose, ho
writed, lost a tio summary removal might work against himself

CHAPTER VII.

MARIAMNE (CONTINUED).

THE Feast of Tabernacles neared, and the whole populatior
of Judsea flocked, in exact accordance with the Law, to Jeru

204 THE WOMEN O if ISRAEL.

salem. Festivity reigned throughout the city — the land was at
rest from foreign oppressors — the spirit of faction itself seemed
stilled — from palace to hut all was solemn rejoicing and light-
hearted merriment. On the holy days of convocation, tho
immense areas and courts of the temple were thronged with the
dense multitudes, eager to receive the high priest's triennial
blessing. And there he stood, the youthful descendant of
a thousand priests, and warriors, and kings, in the first bloom of
graceful youth, clothed in the magnificent vestments of the
solemn office, majestic in his bearing, so unusually tall and
jnely proportioned, in his still boyish figure — his beautiful coun
tenance, so radiant with the holy thoughts and feelings which
his task called forth, that, as the multitudes gazed upon him
standing at the high altar, gracefully and collectedly performing
his priestly duties, themselves never witnessed (from their
peculiar sanctity and holy associations) without emotion, enthu
siasm, even at that holy moment, could not be restrained.
Tears burst forth from young and old — the warrior, even as the
woman, wept, thrilled to the very heart at the beauty, inno
cence, and sanctity he beheld, though himself unconscious why
he wept. Tears, blessings, prayers, swelling at length into
shouts of joyous greeting, betrayed the zeal and love which
burst irrepressibly from every heart. What was the sovereign
himself, though present, compared with the High Priest — their
own, not only in himself, but in his glorious race and family, tho
traits of whom he bore upon his features ? And if such were the
emotions of the multitude, what feelings must have swelled the
hearts of the mother and sister ? However ill-regulated ambition,
and its awful train of evil passions, had marred the heart and
mind of Alexandra, in all things relating to Aristobulus she
felt as an anxious and affectionate mother ; and some of
the purest emotions which she had ever experienced, must have
been excited in thus beholding him. And to his fond sister,
what delicious emotions of love and admiration, aye, and rever
ence, for she knew him worthy of the solemn office, must have
heightened and hallowed the deep affection she had ever borne
him, as the hand-in-hand companion of her childhood and
youth ! Each quivering blessing, each ringing shout, found echo
in her heart.

Darkly and terribly in contrast with such emotions did
the storm of jealous hate rage irj the bosom of Herod. Ha

PERIOD VI. — MARIA.MNE. 205

Wield, or fancied, in the popular enthusiasm, rebellion against
himself; in the grace and beauty of a boy, greater danger
to his power and himself, than he had ever encountered, or
feared from a thousand warriors, or from the wisdom and policy
of a hundred veterans. But though the internal tempest could
only be stilled by the victim's blood, Herod dissembled, and
joined with apparent sincerity in the public rejoicing.

The festival passed; the multitudes dispersed in quiet from
the capital to their respective homes. A hush of peace, foreign
and domestic, seemed to have sunk on the troubled land ; and
Alexandra and her young son returned to the former's palace at
Jericho. There, after a brief interval, they were joined by
Herod and some of his court, no doubt including Mariamne ;
and a period of feasting and royal amusements followed.
All enmity against Aristobulus had apparently subsided. Herod
treated the young man with a semblance of caressing fondness,
only too likely to remove suspicion both from Mariamne and
her brother. Alexandra herself seems at that time to have
suspected nothing evil. The skies over their head, and the dis
tant horizon, all were smiling in cloudless blue and glowing
sunshine, when the bolt fell with a shock of horror as if indeed
nature had thundered from her very smiling calm, and hurled a
death-bolt from her sun-lit sky. The young prince had quitted
the palace in company with the sovereign and their respective
attendants; and wandered carelessly along the gardens and
pastures, till they neared some spacious fishponds. The day
waF sultry, arid many plunged into the refreshing waters,
to indulge in the luxury (truly so, in the scorching East)
of bathing. At first, the young prince had stood aloof, amused
at the various manoeuvres in the art of swimming, displayed
by his attendants, but instigated by Herod to try his skill also,
willingly joined them. Twilight was advancing, but still the
sports continued, till from the closing darkness a wild cry
resounded, and then a suffocating moan, and then a shout from
many voices for " help, the prince was drowning ;" but it came
too late. The measures of the tyrant and his fiendish helpers
had been too well taken, and the hapless youth was conveyed
home to his distracted relatives a lifeless corpse, not three hours
after he had quitted them, radiant in loveliness and life. A
violent death is always fearful to the bereaved survivors, And
how doubly aggravated when traced to relentless murder ! The

206 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

actual cause of the young man's death must certainly have
transpired, else Josephus, who generally tries to exonerate
Herod, would not so decidedly have attributed this murder
to him. As deep and universal as had been the love and sym
pathy which he had inspired at the altar, so deep and universal
was the affliction at his loss ; every family, to use the (in this
instance) expressive words of the historian, " looking on this
calamity, not as it belonged to another, but that one of them
selves was slain" How inexpressible, how harrowing, must
then have been the agony of his mother and sister ; and in the
latter how awfully heightened, by the scarcely restrained voice
of public indignation, pointing to her husband as his ruthless
murderer ! How many circumstances must, in those moments
of agony, have returned to the heart of Mariamne, startlingly,
appallingly convincing of the foundations for those rumors.
Herod had in truth wept, in fearful agitation, as the body of tha
youth was exposed before him ; but there are moments when,
the vision of the soul is clearer than heretofore — when human
agony is such that semblances which successfully deceived
before, cast down their robes of falsehood, and appear naked
in their own hideousness — and so it probably was with
Mariamne. Tears and agitation, which a moment of suf
fering might have so deceived, as to lead her to her husband's
bosom for consolation, now spoke the language, not of grief for
bereavement, but remorse and horror for the deed ; revealed
him not mourner but murderer. Where was she to turn
in that deep agony ? Her mother had concealed her utter
desolation, her passionate cravings for revenge, under an
exterior of such chilling despair, that how might she give
comfort ? He, whom she had loved longest and best on earth,
aye, even better than her husband ; for Herod's was not a cha
racter so to concentrate all affection in himself, that the silver
links of natural affection had been dulled before it; her brother
in blood, in love, in the proud glories of their ancient race and
heritage, he lay in his cold grave ; and dark suspicions filled her
heart, that the only other being in the wide world whom
her young spirit could have loved, was that brother's murderer !
What to her were the magnificent honors which were lavished
on his senseless remains, but as a mockery to the dead, and
triumph to the living, that the last obstacle to his ambition was
removed ? If thus it was considered even by the fickle

1'ERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 207

multitude, whose opinion magnificence and show general!}
guide where a sovereign wills, can we doubt that it was thus
considered by the bereaved and agonized sister, to whom
the private character of Herod must have been more unguardedly
displayed 1 She had been too young, too innocent, too con
fiding to become aware of it before ; but when awakened
by a flash of agony like this, how might the confidence,
the guileless trust of youth return ? She had lived little more
than twenty years ; but she was now ALONE, and in that word
dwells AGE.

Mariamne's deep affliction was visible only in her change of
bearing towards her husband, and the mournful ageing of indi
vidual character. But Alexandra's anguish could have no rest,
no peace, till lost in the wild wish and matured measures for
revenge. Till reason regained ascendency, her agony was such,
that suicide seemed the only relief; but then came the desire to
live, even to prolong life, till vengeance was accomplished : and
so to prolong life demanded all possible care, by neither word
nor act, to offend Herod, whose unscrupulous cruelty would not
spare her, more than her son. To deceive him, therefore, was
that semblance of belief in his professed grief assumed, which
must so have chilled the heart of her daughter — an apparent
satisfaction from the honors awarded to her boy in death — an
impenetrable concealment of every suspicion that murder, not
accident, had deprived her of her child, marked her outward
conduct, while in secret she wrote to Cleopatra, detailing tho
whole affair, and conjuring her influence to bring Herod to
justice.

With all her weaknesses, all her faults, the Egyptian queen
appears fully capable of woman's kindest feelings. Indignant at
the treacherous action, and sympathizing deeply in the mother's
agony, Cleopatra never rested till she had prevailed on Antony
to summon Herod before him, and defend himself from an
accusation so fraught with treachery and horror. As this com
mand was not, however, sent until Antony was in Laodicea, tho
y^ar following the murder, some months must have elapsed,
which probably removed all suspicion of Alexandra having been
concerned in the charge. We only read of Herod being in
great fear of the accusation, and of Cleopatra's known ill-will
towards him. Had he suspected Alexandra as the originator

208 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

we cannot doubt but that her death, either by secret murder 01
public execution, would instantly have followed.

Finding it impossible to evade the summons, Herod left the
charge of his kingdom to his uncle Joseph, as procurator of the
government. With this public office he connected a private
one ; the extraordinary command, that if Antony should
condemn him to death, Joseph would instantly slay Mariamne,
giving as his ostensible reason that he had so tender an affection
for his wife, that he could not bear the idea of her beconjing,
after his death, the wife of any other man. Joseph promised
compliance, and Herod departed.

The historians of this period appear to believe in Herod's
revealed reason for wishing the death of his wife, and lay great
stress on the deep love he bore her. Love ! Can it be possible
that sober, reasoning men, looking back on these events, tracing
the whole character of this man as a map before them — behold
ing not one softening feeling, not one human emotion, not one
pitying pause in his ruthless career — perceiving that his every
aim, intent, desire, apart from individual aggrandizement, was
the denationalization of Judea — to incorporate it with the
heathen kingdoms, and, increasing his own power, exterminate
its peculiar people from the face of the earth — can it be possible,
we repeat, that thoughtful and reasoning men, who at this
distance of time can look back with much clearer ken on the
records of the past, than those historians but lately removed
from the scenes and personages of whom they write, can yet
adopt the views of Josephus, simply because he wrote them, and
believe that love could ever have actuated Herod in command
ing the death of his wife, or have guided his intercourse with her
while she lived ? Jealousy and selfishness might, indeed, have
appeared to his own heart like love, but the reality would have
dictated differently. He might, indeed, in his selfish tyranny,
have resolved that she should never give to, nor receive happi
ness from any other man ; but if we judge of him according to
his character and acts, there was yet another and deeper reason.
He could not bear the thought, that the Asmona?an faction,
whom he so hated, so oppressed, so sought to exterminate in life,
shouid obtain ascendency on his downfall, and rule that land
which he had destined for himself. Mariamne was now almost
its sole representative, with the exception of the aged Hyrcanus,

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 20fi

who, though unfitted for the office of high priest, might yet rule
as sovereign — and his kinsmen, the sons of Babas. Of the exist
ence of these last, Herod was ignorant, having years before
commanded their death.

Herod could not have doubted that, on the event of his death,
Mnriamne would instantly be acknowledged sovereign. Tho
customs of the country had already provided examples of a wife
succeeding her husband ; nor was it likely this rule would be
waived, when, as in the case of Mariamne, it was the wife and
not the husband who possessed legal, hereditary, and national
right to the governmeut. When we reflect on the extreme
jealousy which Herod bore towards all the Asmona3ans — that
he never permitted an opportunity to pass without cutting them
off — we have surely some foundation for the belief, that the
jealousy of ambition, quite as deeply as the jealousy of love,
actuated Herod in his determination, that if he died, Mariamne
should die with him. He could not conquer the hated thought
of beholding her ruling over a loving and obedient people in his
stead, courted, followed, perchance united to one of her own race,
willing and eager to join her in every effort to elevate Judea to
her own exclusive holiness and pristine glory.

This analysis of the motives of Herod's barbarous command
is merely offered to our readers as a suggestion. Histories of
the time are open to them, and far more improving and satis
factory is it for them to read, and to form their own conclusions,
than adopt, without examination, those of another.

From the words used by Josephus, we are led to imagine that
Mariamne had a share in the government, and was consulted
by the regent Joseph on all occasions. " But as Joseph was
ministering the public affairs of the kingdom, and was for that
reason very frequently with Mariamne, both because his business
required it, and because of the respect he sought to pay to the
queen," &c. Now, if the position of the Hebrew females had
been what we are generally inclined to suppose it, the same as that
of the present Eastern females, we should not find this very import
ant passage. The lines marked in italics demonstrate very
ibrcibly, that Joseph was in the habit of consulting with the
queen on all matters of business ; and he did so, not only
because it was the custom of the country, but also from his great
respect towards her, a respect which could not have been excited
in the respective ages and relation of uncle and niece, if intellect,

210 TIIE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

and wisdom, and dignity had not been added to, and enhanced
the exceeding beauty and grace which she so eminently pos
sessed.

Had any modern European historian penned the sentence we
have quoted, its importance would not have been so great;
but coming from Josephus, intimately acquainted as he was
with the manners and customs of the Jews of that day, it is a
powerful proof of the perfect equality of the Jewish female, both
in her domestic and social position. Had it not been quite
customary for such reference to the wife of the sovereign during
his absence, the visits of Joseph must have excited, not only
private, but public suspicion, and called for animadversions from
tje historian : instead of which he describes it quite naturally,
as a usual and common occurrence : and furthermore, declares
Salome's accusations to be a groundless calumny, whose only
foundation was individual hate.

These facts, trifling as they seem, should be remembered,
when we are told that the condition of the Jewish females was
so degraded and enslaved. Josephus, individually, may have a
mean opinion of the sex ; but his whole history, by an almost
remarkable triumph of facts over prejudices, contradicts himself,
and supplies us with unanswerable evidences of the truth of our
theory.

Apparently anxious to increase Mariamne's love for her hus
band, or rather, perhaps, to remove the cold restraint which had
marked her conduct towards him since her brother's death,
Joseph never allowed an opportunity to pass without alluding
to the strong affection Herod bore her. Mariamne herself
appears to have listened to these professions in silence. That
love was strange and doubtful which only manifested itself in
individual passion, wholly regardless of her feelings, as sister,
daughter, and Asmonaaan : but complaint of Herod never passed
her lips. Hers was that true spiritual dignity, never ^ stooping
to reveal to others her own sufferings, when the originator of
those sufferings was her husband.

Alexandra, however, listened to these speeches in a very dif
ferent spirit, and replied with such satirical scepticism, that
Joseph, in his anxious desire to prove the depth and extent of
his nephew's love, incautiously revealed his last command, as an
unanswerable evidence how dear she was to him, that he could
not bear to separate himself from her, even in death.

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 211

The effect of this communication on Alexandra may be
imagined. To lose her only remaining child for the gratification
of a tyrant, would have been, in itself, agonizing enough ; but
Alexandra was never actuated by such feminine emotions alone ;
she hated Herod : as murderer of her boy, it was not much
wonder. She was enraged and indignant that he should pos
sess the heritage of her children : her mind was never quiet,
constantly scheming and intriguing for his downfall ; and in so
doing, almost always compassing the ruin of her own family in
his stead ; and this last command she probably conceived, as wo
have done, as instigated much more by his hatred of MViamne'a
race, than his love for her as an individual.

But her endeavors to incite Mariamne to revenge upon her
jusband were useless. There is not a single pc-tion in the life
or character of the princess which can permit the supposition of
any such emotion entering her mind, even fora moment. What
she felt at this command, even as from every other action of her
husband, she did not reveal : but how fearfully and coldly must
its dark selfishness have sunk into her heart. Life, except for
one sweet tie (she was a mother), was, indeed, a dream of
anxiety and sorrow ; but to be deprived of it by the mandate of
cruelty and violence, was no thought of relief. Did no personal
considerations mingle with it (which they must have done), her
children called upon her to live for them : and by the sweet
emotions they inspired, illumined the heavy darkness round her.
How could she feel towards a husband, capable of issuing such
a command ? What must have been the terror and anxiety, her
daily portion till she could receive tidings of Herod's fate ! And
yet we read of neither word nor act, even in that horrible posi
tion, derogatory to the beautiful enduring consistency, which, to
the very last, her character displayed.

And even when the report came that Ilerod had been exe
cuted, the idea of seeking the protection of the .Romans
originated with Alexandra, not with the one most injured.
That Mariamne should adopt the plan, was natural for her
children's sake as well as her own ; for how might she bear the
thought of leaving them to the care of Cypros and Salome, who
would not scruple to gratify on them the hatred they bore her-
Belf? How else, in fact, was she to preserve her life? She
needed not the motive attributed to her, in conjunction with her
mother, to lead her to the Roman carnp. Her own people

212 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL,

would have been sufficient protection, could she have appealeci
to them : but how could that be, when she was surrounded,
almost imprisoned, by the relatives and creatures of Herod, whose
bidding to them was absolute, even in his death ?

That Mariaiime looked to her personal influence with the
licentious Antony, to protection and benefit, is disproved by the
whole tenor of her life. A single impure thought would have
prevented that perfect defence from all calumnious charges,
which so satisfied the jealous Herod, that even he demanded
nothing further than her simple word. Not even the mosi
prejudiced can fling a doubt upon her name.

That Alexandra urged her to seek the Roman ca.np, because
she looked to her child's influence with Antony, we believe,
though we shudder as we do so ; for such a thought was in
exact accordance with her previous unnatural proceeding, of
forwarding to him the pictures of her children. But even from
such an influence — a mother's influence — Mariamne's own purity
and innocence were her invulnerable shield. Alexandra dared
not, could not have breathed such a thought to her ; and was,
therefore, content to work in secret. But her plans were
frustrated by news from Herod himself, contradicting the report
of his death, and containing a flourishing account of his favor
with Antony ; who not only established his absolute authority,
as sovereign of Judea, but reproved Cleopatra for her interference.
No allusion to the murder of Aristobulus appears to have been
made on either side ; and terrible must have been the pang of
such omission to Alexandra.

While these events were passing, Salome had not been
inwardly idle, though compelled, outwardly, to be on terms of
intimacy with her brother's wife. It was impossible for the
lofty character of the Asmonaean princess to condescend to treat
as an equal and friend, one whose real character her penetration
had probably fully discovered, and whose dislike Salome had
never taken any pains to conceal. Josephus tells us, Salome
"had a long time borne her ill-will; for when they had
discoursed with one another, Mariamne took great freedom ;
and reproached the rest for the meanness of their birth." The
great freedom of such reproaches we must confess ourselves
incapable of discovering. It had probably been during their
mutual residence at Masada, as we before stated ; when
Mariamne was a mere girl, and worked upon bv the examyla

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 213

of her mother, and the prejudices of her own education, to look
down somewhat scornfully on Idumaean proselytes. That
Salome had a " long time borne her ill-will," evidently refers to
that distant period, the stings of which still rankled, increased
by the haughty reserve which had probably marked the queen's
conduct towards her since. It was not to the sister of her
husband, Mariamue could breathe the agonized suspicion of her
brother's murderer ; not to Salome she could reveal sorrows and
emotions concealed from every other. We have no doubt her
manner was cold, nay, even haughty to a fault ; when it would
have been more to her interest to have conciliated. But we
are writing not of angelic, but of human nature ; and that she
did not conciliate either Salome or Herod, as Josephus evidently
thinks she ought, is, to us, a convincing proof of the consistent
uprightness of her conduct. We do not read of Alexandra
inspiring such enmity in Cypros and Salome as Mariamne ;
because the former could feign, when she saw it was her
interest, both forbearance and regard — the latter could not.
That she thought somewhat too proudly of the " accident of
birth" in herself, and too scornfully of it in others, was the fault
of her education, not of herself.

An opportunity had now arrived for Salome's secret plans to
ripen. Accompanied by her mother, who, in these schemes,
always appears just that secondary tool which an active and vindic
tive spirit would make of a passive weak one, Salome met Herod
on his return to Judea ; and, informing him first of Alexandra's
intentions to seek the protection of the Romans, artfully insinuated
that Joseph would no doubt have aided the intention, followed
by a direct charge of dishonorable conduct between him and
Mariamne. The feelings of any man would have been roused
by this calumny. With Herod, jealousy generally maddened
him into a fiend. But in this instance he acted more nobly
than he ever did before or after ; and would almost persuade
us that, could such a feeling be possible, he had moments of
real love for Mariamne individually. He appealed to herself for
the truth or falsehood of the calumny. How must even his
fierce intriguing character have unconsciously acknowledged and
loved the simple truth and purity of his wife, that even°in such
a moment he could have turned to her, and permitted the
solemn assurance of innocence from her lips, to weigh against

214 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the accusations and proofs with which Salome and his rnothei
sought to madden him against her !

The true dignity and natural amiability of Mariamne's
character are proved by her conduct in this interview. A really
haughty, contentious, and scornful woman would have used
reproaches, scarcely condescending to reply to such a charge,
and instead of soothing, irritate still anew. Love her husband
Mariamne could not, but she knew her duty as a wife. She
could feel that, however he had injured her family and herself,
in this instance he did her at least the justice to demand the
truth or falsehood of the charge from her own lips, and with all
a woman's quickness of feeling, have felt for his agony under
such a suspicion, and at that moment felt she might love him
yet again. Conquering all personal emotions, she so calmly, so
fully exculpated herself, that Herod was not only convinced, but
conjured her to pardon the momentary suspicion. Her truth,
her purity, seemed for the moment to infuse themselves into
him, and to arouse his better nature. Professing, and by
caresses endeavoring to manifest unbounded affection and firm
confidence in her fidelity, Josephus tells us, that he sought to
" draw from her a like confidence in himself," words very
convincing, that Mariamne, even while she vindicated herself,
never lost that lofty bearing, and quiet, gentle dignity, which,
from the hour of her brother's murder, had marked her conduct.
Even to her husband she never stooped, as many women so
situated would have done, to feign a love and confidence which
she could not feel. She must have known that her life with
him was in constant danger — a word might be her death-doom ;
but she feared him not. Strong in her own innocence and noble
virtues, she walked on her way, acting as honesty dictated,
without turning this side or that, or fearing any peril that
straightforwardness might bring.

Exactly in accordance with the uncomplaining, but deeply
feeling spirit, which would never breathe to any human ear the
anguish and terror which Herod's command must have excited,
was the noble remonstrance which bade her reply to his entrea
ties for her confidence and love, " if the command he had given,
that if any harm had befallen him from Antony, she who had
been no occasion of it should perish with him, were indeed a
proof of his love for her 1"

PERIOD VI. — MARIAMNE. 215

Even had she known the evils which were to spring from this
rery simple question, Mariamne could not have permitted its
recollection to rankle in her heart, and secretly poison every
outward demonstration of Herod's love. Touched, in all proba-
oility, at his unwonted candor towards herself, her upright mind
ihrank from concealing her knowledge of his secret command,
and she appealed to him, in the same confiding spirit as he had
appealed to her ; but the effect was as different as their respec
tive characters. Herod sprang from her side in a burst of
uncontrolled fury. Her truth, her purity, all passed away
before a blaze of passion, appalling to witness, and terrible to
feel. Madly believing that nothing but improper intimacy with
Joseph could have called for such a betrayal of a command,
imparted to his uncle in strictest confidence, he rushed upon
Mariamne with his drawn sword, and would have slain her
on the spot, had not the calm and dignified composure,
enhancing her extraordinary beauty, even at such a moment,
disarmed him towards herself. His whole rage fell on Joseph
and Alexandra ; ordering the immediate execution of the
former without permitting trial, or even defence, and imprison
ing the latter with every mark of ignominy and insult.

Why his rage, on this occasion, should so have fallen on
Alexandra, appears rather a problem. He seems entirely to
have overlooked the charge against her, of seeking the protection
of the Romans, and to have imprisoned her on this implied
supposition of being accessory to the dishonor of his wife. We
rather imagine that he was rejoiced at any opportunity to get
her out of his way, without caring to give any reason for so
doing. Nor does it appear quite clear to me, that after the
first transports of his rage, and its gratification in the removal
of two obnoxious individuals, he ever seriously retained any
idea of Mariamne's guilt. He evidently lived with her, and
loved her (if he could love) as before, seeking to conciliate her
at every opportunity ; as thus tacitly allowing, that he had
accused and condemned her wrongfully ; and if he really had
believed her guilty, this, even to Herod, would have been
impossible.

But whatever were his secret feelings, they could have
brought neither rest nor comfort to the deeply wounded spirit
of his injured wife. She must have felt more and more con
vinced that her life was not worth a day's purchase, — her honoi
21

216 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

constantly liable to be attacked, her innocence impossible to b«
proved, for neither law nor defence would be allowed her, com
pelled to associate in daily intimacy with the man who had actu
ally drawn his sword upon her, insulted, viliiied, and then added
to the horror with which she must have regarded him, by daring
to profess love, and lavish caresses, from which she must have
shrunk in utmost loathing, — her mother imprisoned, degraded .
and though Mariamne was conscious of Alexandra's many
faults, she was yet her mother : her worst qualities were hidden
from her child ; — the power of her race, the glory of her people,
passing away before the successful ambition of an Idumaean
usurper : the laws and customs of her country wholly disre
garded, that by a gradual, yet sure process, the manners and
customs of heathen nations should take their place ; — it was
impossible that to an Asmonsean, the last pure unmixed scion of
that noble race, such feelings should be unknown ; and what
then must have been the harrowing trials of her inward and
outward life ? Yet we read of no manifestation of her intense
suffering, no secret intrigues, no public appeals, no turning to
equivocal sources of enjoyment, to banish the misery of home.
No ! Compared with the dark machinations, the subtle intrigues
of Salome, Alexandra, and Cypros, she stands forth in untouched
and untarnished lustre, as some pure spirit of truth and light,
sent upon the earth to whisper that even in the blackest and
most appalling periods of human depravity, the divine essence
breathed within us by God himself still has existence ; often, it
may be, invisible, but still there. Historians do Mariamne no
justice. It is only by reflection and analogy, that we can pene
trate the truth concerning her and other characters of the
period ; and doing so with one or two, bringing out the strong
lights of individual character against the dark shadows of the
tyrant circumstance, — comparing what is with what might 6e,
•A is thus we relieve truth in its crystal purity from the web of
prejudice and superficialism, and so learn the important lesson,
that never yet was human nature wholly dark, or this earth left
without some witnesses of the divinity within us. A mere
glance over Josephus, and other historians compiled from him,
confounds Mariamne with the intriguing and subtle spirits, male
and female, by whom she was surrounded ; and thus it is that we
can so seldom discern the good from the bad, the divine from
the earthly, and we condemn all as equally evil, equally retro

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 211

grading. A careful study of history, not merely satisfied with
the views of the writer, but using, freely and fearlessly, our own
powers of reflection and analogy, would teach us much to fill
our hearts with charity and hope, and inculcate the refreshing
faith, that every IDEAL of the immortal mind may find in the
its origin and end.

CHAPTER VIII.

MARIAMNE (CONTINUE!;).

FOK about four years Mariamne lived so far in peace, tl At no
attack from the calumny of female hate, or from the violence of
jealous passion, reached her individually. Her trials were from
the sources to which we have already alluded. How fondly in
this interim must her desolate heart have clung to her children,
four of whom now called her mother ! The very names given
to her sons reveal the love borne by her to her own race and
family. All Herod's other children had names relative to his
Idumaean descent, or in compliment to his Roman allies. It
was not likely that he would have chosen the name of Aristobulus
for one of his sons, laden as it was with the recollection of his
murdered victim ; but we may well imagine the feelings with
which Mariamne bestowed it on her first-born — how, clinging
to the memory of a brother so beloved, she should seek to con
tinue the name in her own family, and in the caresses of an
infant Aristobulus, struggle for forgetfulness of the agony which
still lingered round the memory of her brother. Her second
son she named Alexander, in respectful recollection of her father.
Her daughters, bora afterwards, Salampsio and Cypros, do not
appear to possess the same dear associations, — she had had no
female relation to call for them ; but we trace how her memory
lingered with the dead, and how lonely she felt amid the living
in the simple fact of the names given to her sons.

The awakening intelligence, the infant caresses of her children,

218 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

were Mariamne's only sources of joy. She probably looked to
her boys once more to raise the Asmonaean name, and renew the
national glory of Judea ; and had she lived to rear them from
infancy to youth, to instil within them the nobility of race and
faith which she felt and manifested herself, Judea would have
wept their deaths still more. As it is, though Aristobulus could
have been little more than six when his mother died, we can
trace in the after-history of both the young men the lofty bear
ing and proud virtues hereditary to their mother's raoe — even
though their Roman education must have deadened every infant
impression of their peculiar religion and their holy land. Four
years after Herod's injurious conduct towards herself, Mariamne
was called upon to mourn the death of her last male relative, the
harmless and aged Hyrcanus. Whether or not Alexandra's
intrigues had really urged the old man to such measures as gave
Herod a pretence for ordering his execution, or whether the plot
were Herod's own, only to get rid of one whose claims to the
crown he still seemed to fear, cannot now be correctly ascertained.
The indolent character of Hyrcanus gives some color to the
latter supposition ; the intrigues and restless spirit of Alexandra
authorize the former. From whatever cause, the loss to Mari
amne was the same, and it widened the breach between her
heart and her husband. The freedom enjoyed by Hyrcanus,
and the respect, at his first accession, proffered to him by Herod,
who gave him lodging at the palace, and board at the king's
table, had probably given Mariamne many opportunities of
enjoying the old man's society, and bound her to him still more
closely than their consanguinity. She could not have believed
the charges brought against him, nay, most probably knew that
they were false, and traced their contrivance to her ambitious and
ever scheming husband, beholding in them yet another proof of
Herod's resolve to crush every remnant of her race. She had
not, however, long to indulge in grief. Herod v/as, at this period,
anxious to conciliate the youthful conqueror of Antony, Octavius
Caesar, who was then at Rhodes ; and trembling, as usual, lest
the popular love for the Asmonaeans should snatch the home
government from his hands, and give it to Mariamne and her
children, he resorted to the cruel expedient of separating his
wife from her only treasures, placed them under the care of his
own mother and sister, at Masada, and confined Mariamne and
Alexandra in the fortress of Alexandrina, under charge of

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 219

his treasurer Joseph, and Sohemus of Itruria, giving to the latter
exactly the same selfish and brutal command as he had given to
his uncle Joseph five years previously, that if his death were the
consequence of his dangerous expedition, not only Mariamne, but
her mother, should die with him, and the kingdom proceed to
his brother Pheoras, regent for his (Herod's) sons. This com
mand at once proves that not love, but ambition, and hatred of
the Asmonsean race, were his real motives, not only at the second
time, but at the first. There was now no Antony >n such power
as to unite himself with the wife of his victim. Octavius Caesar
was no character for the terror of such an alternative. Besides,
if it were only his love (so called) which could not bear its
object to survive him, why command the death of Alexandra
also ? It is clear throughout this dark domestic history, that
love for Mariamne individually, and hatred of her as an Asmo
nsean, whose claims to the throne of her people were continually
endangering his own, were ever at such fierce internal war, that
he could never define from which of these contending passions the
motives of his actions sprang ; and the historians are therefore
equally obtuse, giving often to love of the woman, what was in
fact nothing but hatred of the race.

There is no proof more convincing of her right to the throne
which Herod occupied, than his determination that she should
never survive him to enjoy it ; love held his hand while he coald
revel in her exceeding loveliness, but when she could no longer
be his, she was to share the fate of all her race.

Josephus is amusingly astonished that Mariamne could feel no
affection for her husband ; and quite blames her for not dissem
bling her dislike. We should feel very grateful to any one who
would bring forward a single instance in Mariamne's hapless life
where love for Herod on her part was even possible, or what
single proof he ever gave of his exceeding love for her. We
will not again refer to sufferings on which we have already
dilated ; but ask if separation from the only beings she had
loved on earth, and such imprisonment in a well-garrisoned
fortress, as utterly prevented all exercise of power, and privileges
of rank which she had enjoyed, were any striking proof of con
jugal regard ? In Herod's previous absence he had had at least
the grace to associate his wife with his uncle in the government.
In this, Josephus expressly tells us " that they had no power
Ofer anything, either of others, or of their own affairs ;" and this

220 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

he need not have written, unless conscious that they both had
the right and the will to execute authority.

lo some characters, the injury of placing her children under
any care but her own, would have swallowed up all othel
emotions. But Mariamne was no ordinary woman. To her
heart it was not only maternal suffering : the cruel deprivation
of her privileges was in direct disregard of the customs and
habits of her people, who, m every stage of their eventful history,
gave to mothers, and mothers only, the education of both
hons and daughters. It was an insult as well as a source of
personal suffering, aggravating not lessening the degradation of
imprisonment. Had her children been still with her, she would
not have regarded her residence at Alexandrina as anything
more than a measure of security. But when she felt herself
deprived of a privilege granted to the meanest of her subjects, so
watched and guarded, that she had scarcely the liberty of care
less speech ; was it marvel, was it out of nature, that her proud
\smonsean blood deepened the injured feelings of the wife and
mother, and that from that hour she made no further efforts to
love her husband ?

Yet still, true to the beautiful dignity of her womanly charae
ter, Mariamne descended to neither intrigue nor revenge. Her
winning beauty and graceful manner, so fascinated all who
approached her, even her keepers, creatures strong in Herod's
confidence and favor, that had she ever attempted to obtain her
rights by an appeal to the people, there does not seem a doubt
that she would ultimately have obtained them; all Herod's
magnificence in building, in connexion with foreign potentates,
had not made him popular. He was endured far more for his
Asmona3an wife than for himself, and hundreds, aye thousands,
amidst the Jewish people would have flocked round Mariamne,
had she but uplifted her standard in opposition to the authority
of Herod. But she was far too essentially and exquisitely
feminine, to plunge the nation into renewed war and misery for
her sake; far too truly noble, to make her private anguish
a theme of publicity and blood, or reveal to others, save Herod's
self, the loss of affection which his acts had caused. We never
hear a syllable of complaint or reproach, save boldly and
openly to himself. Her character changed not an atom of its
gentle dignity, its forbearing endurance. Naught of irritation,
sourness, or that consciousness of injury, which some women lovi

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNK. 221

to reveal, as proving them martyrs, marks her conduct. Sorrow
could not make her° selfish ; painful as it is, when the heart i*
aching in its own unceasing anguish, to think of pleasing others
even by daily words and common manner, yet even in this lowly
duty she did not fail.

Sohemus, like her previous guardian Joseph, was unable
to retain the cruel command of Herod, when in presence of its
intended victim. Though at first stern, and resolved to remain
faithful to his master, his determination faded away before the
fascination of Mariamne, who, without any effort on her own
part, won every heart that still retained the emotions of
humanity. Even Josephus's prejudiced and contradictory
account absolves Mariamne from any undue influence over
Sohemus. He was evidently at first led to shrink from obeying
Herod's injunction, simply from the unfailing gentleness of her
manner in their daily intercourse. Then, imagining that Herod
would not obtain the confirmation of his authority from Qatar,
he became anxious to conciliate the queen ; convinced that if
she did survive her husband, " she would give him abundant
recompense" for his fidelity to herself— for she could not be
overlooked in the settling of the government, as she must either
reign herself, or be very near those that reigned. He hoped
also, that his informing her of the charge intrusted to him and
of his determination at all hazards to disobey — would obtain him
favor even if Herod did return, by Mariamne's influence obtain
ing for him some honorable post.

This conviction that Mariamne must reign herself in case of
Herod's death, or be very near those that did, meaning her sons,
in preference to their elder half-brother Antipater, proves in
what light sh« was in reality regarded by the people in general,
and confirms our supposition, that had she been constituted like
her intriguing mother and so raised the banner of revenge
and revolt, she would have found very many to support
her cause. It tells us, too, that her being a female in no way
interfered with her right of heritage in the estimation of her
people; and this is an important evidence of woman's social
position at that period.

The information of Sohemus could scarcely have been unex
pected, though it could not fail to alienate Mariamne from
Herod yet more. Her mother, too, was to share her fate : the
tyrant was not content with one victim. How was it possible

222 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

she could regard his professions of affection as meaning auglu
but hypociisy and guile? How trust to them, when it was so
clearly evident that he would never rest till every scion of hei
race had been cut off? How must her fond heart have clung to
the recollection of her children, thus doomed to be snatched
from them ! And leaving them to such a father ! If we reflect
but deeply on her position, we surely cannot agree with Milrnan
as to the difficulty of deciding " what ought to have been her
feelings and her conduct."

Herod returned — crowned with success. Octavius Caesar
had confirmed him in possession of Judea — accepted his friend
ship, and dismissed him with distinguished honors. The home
affairs of Judea had prospered, and, seeking Mariamne, he
revealed his unexpected success with an exultation and rejoicing
which could find little response in the heart he addressed. She
listened to him calmly, coldly — it might be haughtily. The
time had passed, when, as in their former interview, she could
appeal to him, and inquire if the order of her death in case of
his, were indeed proof of love. Those simple words had caused
the death of one individual whose only crime was fidelity to her
self, and the imprisonment of her mother, who, though generally
intriguing, had in this instance offended in nothing save in being
the wife and mother of Asmonaeans. How might she speak
them again ? Yet how could her noble spirit stoop to the
semblance of interest and affection, when Herod's own deeds
had alienated both ? It was impossible — and with calm and
proud indifference, she received him ; and so treated him thence
forward. That there was imminent danger in this line of con
duct, no doubt she knew ; but her mind was not one to stoop to
deceit for preservation. Had she concealed her sentiments of
dislike, she would have failed in the beautiful truth which
encircles her as a halo. No conjugal duty could have demanded
this concealment. There may be some to think that under all
insult, all oppression, all injustice, she should have remembered
that she was a wife, and in duty bound to submit to her hus
band. We answer, that, as a wife, she never failed in duty ; she
could have appealed to the Jewish law, and have demanded a
divorce; she could have returned his underhand measures
against her life and happiness, by equally undermining his, both
publicly and privately ; she might have sought solace for her
domestic misery and personal gratification in pleasures of doubt-

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 223

fiil tendency, which, in that dark stormy period, and laxity of
morals, would have passed unnoticed ; but Mariamne was
a Jewish wife, a Jewish mother ; and so, unsullied by even the
passing breath of such dark thoughts, she failed not either in
fidelity or allegiance. She endured without one murmur, one
struggle to ameliorate her misery ; but her truth would have
been sacrificed, had she treated the human author of her trials
as if she could give him love, or believe in his.

Her coldness roused Herod's contending passions of love and
hate almost to madness. The one repeatedly urged him
to violent measures against her ; the other restrained him,
fearing by her death to inflict deeper misery upon himself than
upon her. No profession, no effort on his part, could change her
dignified and quiet manner to the demonstration of love, for
which his strange spirit seemed to long. Her presence bowed
him, monster as in reality he was, under the influence of over
whelming love for her individually ; her absence changed
this feeling into as overwhelming a hate for her as an Asmo-
naean, who dared insult him by an assumption both of dignity
and coldness — the first of which his secret conscience admo
nished him was natural to her rank and race, and the latter
deserved by his own deeds in the ruthless murder of her grand
father, father,* and brother.

Now, then, was the opportunity for which Salome had
so long waited. Though foiled four years previous, her envy
and hatred had not diminished, but, hoarded in her own
evi. heart, imparted only to her mother, who was her ready
adjunct, were ready to pour forth as a poisonous torrent,
the first imoient that she could gain her brother's ear.
Already half maddened by his contending passions, Herod
listened eagerly, and heard such specious tales of calumny
and shame as excited his jealousy of herself, in addition to his
hatred of her race. Still he could not proceed against her,
though every lying tale in his distorted fancy was confirmed by
her proud coldness towards himself. Each week increased
the evil. His ill-regulated fitful mind and temper — the fierce
strife of opposing, but equally violent passions — the one inflamed
to madness, from the malignant whisperings of his serpent

* Though the father of Mariamne did not fall by Herod's own hand 01
•ommand, he was supposed to have hud a principal share in his death.

224 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

sister — the other heightened, fired by the sight of that soul-sub
duing beauty which shone forth in its cold resplendence,
unwarmed by a single ray towards him — all raged within,
and at length so furiously, that he was on the point of
proceeding to extremities, to tLe gratification of Salome, when
the evil was postponed.

No domestic passions ever seemed to interfere with his public
ambition. Hearing that Antony and Cleopatra were both dead,
and Caesar conqueror of Egypt, he hastened to meet him there,
leaving his family affairs in their present turbulent condition,
and without, as usual, leaving any charge concerning his
wife. It was when setting out on this journey that Mariamne
recommended Sohernus (no doubt at his own entreaty) to
Herod, asking for him a place in the government, ivhich
was granted. She could appeal for one who had acted
faithfully towards herself and children, though she would ask no
favor, no privilege for herself.

Nothing but prosperity awaited Herod in all his foreign
concerns. Octavius Caesar not only received him as his
personal friend, but richly increased his monarchical dominions.
The dominions of Gadara, Hyppos, and Samaria — the cities
of Gaza, Anthedon, Joppa, and Strabo's Tower, all commanding
extensive maritime commerce, were made over to him by
the emperor; and after attending Caesar as far as Antioch,
Herod returned to his own capital, flushed with success,
and more imperious than ever.

Still, though every throb of ambition seemed fulfilled, Herod
could not be satisfied. While earnestly pursuing his career of
individual power, all the inward torments of jealous hate
and jealous love subsided, but were recalled with redoubled
violence on his return. The emperor of the world called
him friend, and treated him as such. Other foreign potentates
courted, flattered, paid him homage. A monarchy larger
and more independent than had belonged to any of the
former kings of Judea, acknowledged him as king ; and
its millions of inhabitants were obedient and peaceful through
terror, if not through love. And still one woman heart refused
him the homage of love and reverence which he demanded
—refused to disgrace and humble her own noble Asmonsean
name by acknowledging him rightful sovereign of Judea. So
at least, on mature reflection, it appears that Herod's own con

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 225

science regarded her conduct. Had she given him the love he
demanded3, he would have accepted it as a tacit acknowledg
ment of his supremacy; but the unwavering coldness of
her manner, the noble bearing, throwing an air of princely
dignity over her simplest action— the calm indifference with
which' she regarded his exaltation, all betrayed, that over
her soul he could have no power, either by love or hate : ar.d,
therefore, the mortification of feeling himself, in spite of his
power, his magnificence, his severity, actually despised by
a weak and delicate female whom he would have crushed
a hundred times, had not his consuming passion for her exceed
ing loveliness held his hand, heightened his jealous passion
to°a pitch of madness which embittered every moment of
his life.

So some months passed, nearly a year, from his. last cornn.and
ffhich Sohemus had betrayed. Salome and Cypros continued
Lheir poisonous intrigues, their enmity receiving hot increase
from its apparent utter impossibility to chafe the collected
spirit of their victim. That her penetrative mind beheld their
designs is most probable, and also that holding them in
most supreme contempt, her manner increased in haughtiness
towards them. Mariamne had never been taught to conquer,
or even to know the natural failings of her race. If she
had, she would not have aggravated enmity, though she might
not have averted it. She would not have stooped to feign
a friendship she could not feel ; but she would have avoided all
occasions to give offence. But to one educated as herself
this was not easy. Her very hatred of the insidious conduct
unfailingly practised towards her by Cypros and Salome,
naturally increased the contempt which their Idumaean birth
had originally excited. She no doubt knew the danger which
this enmity threatened : but fear was as much unknown to the
females as to the males of the Asmonsean line. That she
treated them with undue haughtiness, and may even have
spoken of them with the contempt she felt, is not unlikely.
We have no wish to exalt our hapless ancestress into the
paragon of perfection which some writers create their heroines ;
but this we will assert, her failings were those of her education, her
virtues intrinsically her own, and so far superior in number and in
brightness to her faults, that combined as they are with her severe
tind unmerited sufferings, we can only think of them, and love

226 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

her for their sakes. The fierce flames of hate which had beet
smothered so long, at length burst. Every preparation, in cast
of such an opportunity, had long been made by Salome. The
train, as it were, lay only waiting for the kindling match.

In one of his paroxysms of love, Herod one day sent for
Mariamne, and endeavored by lavish caresses and passionate
professions to draw from her a similar return ; but he sought in
vain. Roused at length from her wonted calm endurance,
jnable to restrain the agony of recollection, deepened as it was
by such false professions of a love which his every act denied,
she demanded how she could love one whose ambition and
reckless cruelty had caused alike her brother and her grandfa
ther to be slain, and heaped misery and degradation upon her
family and herself? Enraged beyond all forbearance, Herod
would have committed personal violence on his wife, but
appears to have been again restrained by her still subduing
beauty. But his chafed spirit so raged and stormed, that Salome
paused no longer. Mariamne had scarcely left the apartment,
before his cup-bearer entered, and with every appearance of
agitation informed him that the queen had bribed him with
many presents to administer a love-potion, the composition of
which he knew not and fearing what its effects might be, had
resolved, as the safest course, on communicating the whole tc
the king.

Already more than usually enraged, and glad of any charge
wherewith to proceed against Mariamne, the king instantly com
manded her most faithful eunnch to be seized and tortured,
knowing that the queen could have done nothing without his
aid. The man, in his extremity of agony, never alluded to the
charge for which he was tortured ; but allowed, that so far as
he knew, the dislike borne by his mistress to the king had been
occasioned by something which, during Herod's absence, Sohe-
mus Lad said to her. Again the same fearful belief of treachery
and dishonor, which had actuated his conduct towards his uncle
five years before, took possession of his heart and mind, and this
time with still more fearful effects. Mariamne's petition for
Sohemus probably heightened the conviction of her guilt, and
prevented all delay. Sohemus was seized and slain without
even being informed of his offence, or being enabled to exculpate
the queen by his denial of the charge. Mariamne herself, sum
moned before judges of Herod's own selection, was tried on th»

PERIOD VI. — MARIAMNE. 22'

accusation of her husband — some historians say of adultery ; Uut
the words of Josephus are these : — " He allowed his wife to take
ner trial, and got together those that were most faithful to him,
and laid an elaborate accusation against her for this love-potion
and composition, which had been charged upon her by way of
calumny only." Now this is convincing to me that he did not
accuse her of adultery, knowing that if he did so, she might
demand, and he dared not have refused, the trial of the waters
of jealousy, expressly provided by the mercy of the Eternal for
such emergencies. It was an unchanged statute of her people,
as much her right then as it had been that of her ancestress in
centuries past. Again, the judges themselves, however terrified
at the wrath of the king, dared not have pronounced her guilty
of adultery, without positive proofs of her crime, at the mouth
of more than one witness. The intemperate rage of Herod had
so far acted against himself, that the death of Sohemus pre
vented his appearance in treachery and falsehood, if he had
been so inclined to inculpate the victim. For substantiating the
charge of attempted assassination through the love-potion, how
ever, Herod could easily obtain tools. The same heart and
hand which had already kindled the brand, was still there to
nurse it into a wide-spreading flame. The creatures of her
schemes were ready to do the bidding of their sovereign. Once
in Salome's power, it was easy to complete the deed. Herod's
phrensy prevented all correct judgment : and if for the words,
" got together those that were most faithful to him," we read,
" got together all those that were ready to swear away their
own souls, if by so doing they could oblige their mistress Salome,
and compass the death of Mariamne," we may chance to obtain
the only correct rendering of the sentence.

Before such judges, and against such witnesses, what would
mnocence avail ? Josephus does not give us the particulars of
the trial ; but from the queen's conduct on her way to execu
tion, we may suppose her demeanor when in presence of her
judges. A 'dignified composure, a calm denial of the charge,
were the only words which probably paused those lips which
falsehood had never tarnished. She was innocent — innocent
alike of the charge accused, and the charge implied ; for no
doubt, though adultery was not made the reason of the trial, for
the reasons stated above, they sought to cover her with the
implication of dishonor ; and innocence, in such awful hours, in

228 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

truth is strength. It will not always support us through
l-ingering years of misery, of being shunned by our fellows,
because accused of deeds we have no power to prove are false ;
but God Himself has mercy then, and when the frame dwindles
from a breaking heart, takes us to His Heaven, to enjoy an
eternity of blessedness for a period of woe.

On the threshold of that eternity, Mariamne stood ; and no
thought of the opinion of man could disturb the tranquillity
with which innocence strengthened her to look on death. Sho
must long have expected this. From the hour of her brother's
murder, disclosing as it did the true character of Herod, and
his fixed resolve to exterminate the Asmonaean line, she must
have anticipated for herself a similar fate. She had faced it, as
impending for five years ; and the noble spirit which had
enabled her, during that interval, so calmly to regard it, as
never to waver in the line of strict integrity, or even by word or
sign to lower the dignity of her character and race, would not
forsake her at its termination.

The mockery of justice enacted by that iniquitous trial,
Josephus himself proves. Creatures of Herod, his will was
theirs, and their sentence his. " Accordingly when the court
was at length satisfied that he was so resolved, they passed the
sentence of death upon her." There is not a syllable as to their
own conviction, or their own judgment, nor the wherefore of their
sentence, except the resolution of the king — not a word as to the guilt
of the prisoner. Still Herod shrank in his selfish passion from losing
her entirely. He remanded the sentence of death for one of
perpetual imprisonment. But dreading that, if permitted to live
even now, every schema for her destruction would fall to the
ground, Salome and her party never rested, till by dint of alarm
ing the ambition of the king, they obtained the order for her
execution. Here, again, we penetrate the passion which
divided Herod's heart with the opposing element of love. It
was not by bringing forward the chances of her again dishonor
ing him, or her becoming the property of another, with which
Salome now endeavored to work upon her brother, but by art
fully suggesting, that were she permitted to live, there was
always danger of the multitude's revolting, releasing her from
prison, and making her sovereign in his stead ; for such is evi
dently the meaning of Josephus's words ; and not, as a mere
hasty reading might suppose, that the people were so enraged

PERIOD VI. — MARIAMNE. 22S

ugainst her, that they would be tumultuous if she were suffered
to live. This is contrary to both history and reason. We
know that Herod was not so much beloved, that the multitudes
should be enraged against an attempted assassin, by the simple
fact that conspiracies were continually forming against him —
men forming in bodies by some means to compass his death.
His very race, as well as his public measures and private charac
ter, were odious ; whereas Mariamne was almost idolized, alike
for herself, and as being the last representative of a race so long
beloved. A very little reflection on these facts will, I think, be
convincing, that the above analysis of Salome's arguments is
founded on reason.

The order for the execution of the queen was at letgth issued,
and Mariamne prepared for it with the same calm intrepidity
as she had faced it years before. Yet who can refuse sympathy
in this undeserved fate for one so innocent, so lovely, and still
so young, that she could barely have exceeded five and twenty
years ? Nor was she entirely without ties, binding her with
silvery links to earth, fraught with anguish and trial as it was.
All whom she had loved with a girl's and woman's fondness,
had either fallen in death, or by their dark deeds annihilated
every capability of affection ; but others had arisen, to concen
trate on them a heart clinging in its desolation to them, even
yet more closely, more devotedly, than ordinary love. How
might she leave her infant children ? Who on earth was to
care for them I Would not the same persevering hatred poison
their young existence as it had her own ? To whom did she
leave "them— Herod, Salome, Cypros ? Would they supply her
place ? And her own mother ? Alas ! she must have already
learned that she, too, was not one on whom her heart could rest,
or to whom she could intrust treasures far more precious than
herself; and in the brief interval stretching between her and
death, she was to feel this yet more agonizingly — the last drop of
bitterness flung into her cup was thrown by a mother's hand !
It was not then the mere separation by her own violent death
from her beloved ones. Thoughts of far deeper anguish must
have occupied some of her parting moments. Nor is this, as we
shall, no doubt, be accused, taking too great license, and allow
ing imagination to usurp the unvarnished tale of history. We
never refuse the meed of sympathy to Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane
Grey, Mary Queen of Scots, and other sufferers of more modern

200 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

times ; yet, compared with the unsullied purity of Mariamne,
the first of these was unredeemably guilty, and the last burden^
ed by many historians with a charge (which, though we ourselves
believe it a false and most unproved one, still attaches itself to
her name) of a husband's murder. In point of innocence, the
second only can be named with her ; and sad as was her fate,
it was little removed from joy, compared to the trials and death
of Mariamne. If we give these three our sympathy — if we teach
the young heart to feel for them — if the tale of Anne's parting
from her own Elizabeth, and remorse for her neglect of Mary,
excite our sympathy — why shall we hurry over the memoirs of
our own, and refuse them the meed of admiration, love, and pity,
which, if we reflect, even their brief unsatisfactory records in
Jewish history must excite ? Let any wife and mother place
herself in idea in the position of the Asmonsean princess ; or ii
this be too fanciful for her imagination, let her suppose hei
nearest and dearest relatives injured alike openly and secretly
by the man she has married, and whom she could have loved
— herself insulted, doubted — treated at one time with furious
love, at others imprisoned, and in danger of her life from the
same being — and then accused, condemned, without hope of
justice or relief — let her ponder on this ; and if she be a mother
say where her last thoughts would rest, and then accuse us, if
she can, of so infusing history with imagination, as to render it
impossible to divide the one from the other. Is human nature,
human feeling, different now to what it was in former ages ?
Shall we deprive the characters of history of all power of emotion,
only because they existed under a different modification of social
customs ? If so, and we are not to exercise either reflection,
analysation, or intellect, history must remain the bare recital of
events and dates, of which so many justly complain, and irom
which nc lesson, no moral, can be deduced.

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 231

CHAPTER IX.

MARIAMNE (CONCLUDE D) A L E X A N D R A 8 A L C M * «

JOSEPHUS is silent both as to the period elapsing between
Mariamne's trial and her death, and as to the manner of that
execution. Stoning had originally been the Jewish penalty for
all crimes ; but the Roman punishment of decapitation had very
probably taken its place, and by the axe, no doubt, the last of
the Asmonceans fell.

Whatever the death, no doubt attends the last moments of
the victim. Calmly, unflinchingly, we are told, she walked to
the place of execution. No terror, no unseemly indignation at
the injustice dealt her, marred the modest and tranquil dignity
which had marked her life, and left her not in death, there
she was, in her touching youth and exquisite beauty, accused
of crimes, which not one of those vast multitudes who looked on
believed, though none dared tempt the tyrant's wrath by rising
in her cause. Not a sound broke the awful stillness — the very
emissaries of Salome, scattered in large numbers amongst the
crowds to silence the faintest semblance of murmuring or pity,
appear to have been awed by the dignified composure of the
prisoner, and horror-struck, even as the rest of the spectators, by
the sudden appearance of Alexandra, not, as might be supposed,
to lament and mourn over her child, but to heap upon her
reproaches and abuse, declaring " that her punishment came
justly upon her for her ingratitude to her husband, and her
insolent behavior in not making proper returns to him who had
oeen their common benefactor." The motives of this fearful
hypocrisy, terror for herself, and the consequent desire to avert
all personal danger from Herod, by publicly condemning her
child, whom she above all persons knew to be innocent, appear
to have been penetrated, even at that moment, by the multitudes,
and excited their loudest condemnation ; but no word of
reproach or suffering escaped the lips of her whom a mother
thus assailed. Yet how bitter must have been the pang
of such unexpected conduct. How fearfully must the cold

232 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

selfishness which could, at such a moment, seek personal security
by asserting belief in the guilt of her own child, whom she knew
to be unstained, have sunk on the heart of the prisoner ! But
all human emotions had been stilled — she was standing on the
threshold of that glorious eternity, which to her, as a woman of
Israel, a descendant of priests, was revealed in all its fulness, all
its bliss. A brief, brief pang, and she knew she should be with
the idolized brother of her youth, whose angel spirit might even
at that moment be hovering near her, to waft her released soul
to the footstool of her God. For Israel death had no terror —
immortality was to them revealed. They knew that with God
was the fulness of joy, and at His right hand were everlasting
pleasures. And in the calm fortitude, the meek endurance yet
lofty bearing of the Asmonaean princess, we read, not the
stoicism of the Roman martyr, but the rejoicing faith and
unshrinking courage of the Hebrew believer, firm in the blessed
consciousness of Immortality and Heaven !

One look of pitying forgiveness fell from the eyes of the
injured, on her unnatural mother, and a few words addressed to
those near her expressed the deep concern for Alexandra's
degradation. Not for its injury towards herself, but as it
concerned her mother individually, exposing her, as it did, to
the contempt of the populace, and little likely to conciliate the
king. These appear to have been her last words ; "for herself,"
Josephus continues, "she went to death with an unshaken
firmness of mind, and without even changing the color of her
face, and thereby discovered the nobility of her descent to the
spectators, even in the last moments of her life."

We do not think that " nobility of descent" is or was the real
lesson derived from such a death. It was the calm intrepidity
of innocence — the composed and gentle firmness of a soul at
peace with itself, and resting on its God. She had lived long
enough to learn, and feel too sadly, that not in this world may
we " distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between
him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not ;" and, the
pangs of parting from her children once subdued, she gladly
turned to that everlasting home where her innocence was known,
where her wearied spirit would find its yearned-for rest, and her
desolate heart, which earth had crushed, be filled with love
Infinite as perfect, bliss unending as complete.

We have endeavored to make manifest throughout thii

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 233

eventful history, how mistaken and contradictory are the
impressions with which Josephus would burden the character
of Mariamne. Whereas Salome, whose actions it is utterly
impossible to misunderstand, and whose dark thoughts and sinful
machinations are distinctly visible, from the moment she appears
on the theatre of life to the end of her existence, he dismisses
without a shadow of blame, either written or implied. Thus
leaving the idea, that trifling errors of education, the only faults
which can be applied to Mariamne, are, because visited with
suffering and death, infinitely more culpable and heinous than
the palpable and uncalled-for crimes of calumny, false witness,
murder, and a long list of atrocities, either actually performed
by Salome herself, or planned and committed by her sole orders
and persuasions, but whose blackness becomes white in the eyes of
the historian, through the marvellous transformation of temporal
elevation and success. Surely, we ought to be careful how we place
such opinions in the hands of our children, and not rest contented
with merely giving them history to peruse. As an author, Jose
phus is most valuable ; we have no doubt of his accuracy with
regard to events, but we cannot depend upon either his discrimi
nation or impartiality in the delineation of character, or in the
justice and entireness of his conclusions. We repeatedly find
that his drawing up, as it were, of a character, is contradicted
by the whole tenor of previous events, which, being related by
himself as facts, must guide us much more correctly than his
own conclusions. We have seen this already in the life and
character of Alexandra ; and we shall perceive it as clearly in
his winding up of the character of Mariamne, which we subjoin :
" And thus died Mariamne ; a woman of excellent character
both for chastity and greatness of soul ; but she wanted
moderation, and had too much contention in her nature. Yet
had she all' that can be said, in the beauty of her body, and her
majestic appearance in conversation; and thence arose the
greatest part of the occasions, why she did not prove so agree
able to the king, nor live so pleasantly with him as she might
otherwise have done, for while she was most indulgently used
by the king, out of his fondness for her, and did not expect that
he could do any hard thing to her, she took too unbounded a
liberty. Moreover, that which afflicted her was, what he had
done to her relations, and she ventured to speak of all they had
suffered by him ; and at last greatlv provoked both the king's

234 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

mother and sister, till they became enemies to her, and even h«
himself also did the same, on whom alone she depended for hei
expectations of escaping the last of punishments."

Now we would ask any casual reader, what would be the
impression of this extraordinary passage ? Would they not sup
pose that Mariamne had not only drawn down her fate upon
herself, but had actually deserved it ? That she was the only
one to blame, and Herod, Cypros, and Salome, all alike were
guiltless ? And yet, even in leaving this most unfounded and
most unjust impression, of what does he accuse her ? Com
pelled (it would seem almost in spite of himself) to acknowledge
her chastity and greatness of soul, all he can bring against her
is, that her " majestic appearance in conversation " (meaning, we
imagine, the calm dignity of her manner) rendered her less
agreeable to the tyrant than she would have been could she
have resembled her mother, and condescended to deceive. We
are told that "she was most indulgently used by the king, who
out of his great fondness for her could do no hard thing to her,
and that, therefore, she took too great a liberty, wanted modera
tion, and evinced too contentious a spirit." Where throughout
her history, and we have given it at length, can we find the
foundation for either of these clauses ? How did Herod demon
strate his deep love and great indulgence ? By the murder of
her brother and grandfather, the constant indignity offered to
her mother, the death of all those who befriended or were faith
ful to her; or by the continued insults offered to herself, in
doubting her truth commanding her imprisonment and separa
tion from her children, twice sentenced to death in case of
Heroc's death, and final execution on a false and unproved
charge ? Where can we find proofs of her want of moderation,
&c. ? In her calm endurance of her constant sufferings ? In
her breathing not one syllable of complaint or injury, forming no
plots, joining no intrigues, passing through her brief life in such
unstained, unsullied purity and chastity, that not even the most
prejudiced can dare fling a stigma on her noble name ; exposed
times out of number to temptation from the machinations of an
evil mother, and the insults of a phrensied husband, yet eschew
ing all, and standing forth in her own brightness ; before which
neither slander, hatred, nor calumny, could stand ? We read
how impossible Salome felt it to compass her death on the plea
»f her dishonor by the artifice of the love-potion, which in th«

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 233

«m! she was compelled to adopt. In what can we discover too
contentious a spirit? In the high-minded uprightness which
revealed to the injurers, and to the injurers alone, her conscious
ness of their evil intentions towards her ? In the absence of all
deceptive conciliation, and yet the avoidance of all attempted
vengeance? In what took she too unbounded a liberty ? We
read of her asking no boon save one, and that was Sohemus's
own seeking. If, indeed, Herod so " indulgently used her," and
she was of so rapacious a disposition, is it not almost marvellous
that history reveals not a single instance in which this unbounded
liberty was used; that Mariamne should never have accused
Salome and Cypros to the king, and urged his interference to
prevent their injurious treatment of herself : that we do not read
of her interfering also in the government, in foreign and civil
affairs, in which other women, who really did take " too
unbounded a liberty," were so often mischievously engaged?
There was neither law nor custom in her nation to prevent this
interference, had she been so inclined.

Again, was it so very remarkable that " what afflicted her
most, was Herod's conduct to her relations ?" Yet Josephus,
and even Milman, seem to imagine that because she was the
murderer's wife, she was not to feel these things. Was it in
human nature to retain affection or even esteem for a man " who
had more or less concern in the murder of her grandfather,
father, brother, and uncle," * even could she forget and forgive
that twice he had commanded her death in case of his own ?
Was it a fault that " she ventured to speak of all they had
Buffered by him ?" Or was it not rather a proof of a noble spirit
and courageous soul, which urged her to risk her own life,
rather than by silence and deceit tacitly acquiesce in the nece-
si ty for their destruction ? We are told, too, that Mariamne
" greatly provoked both the king's mother and sister ;" but of
their hatred to her, and malignantly working enmity, Josephus
takes no note, permitting us to suppose that it was deserved, and
Mariamne, not Salome, was to blame. Haughtiness and reserve,
then, according to this historian, are greater crimes than slander,
false witness, and actual murder. Mariamne might have treated
Salome and Cypros with undue haughtiness, but the fault
originated in her education, not herself. Had she, as she might

* Milman.

386 THE WOMEtf OF ISRAEL.

have done, sought to injure Salome with the king, or give*
evidence of her dislike by public insult or private annoyances, we
might acknowledge that she was in error ; but of such things
we'can discern no trace whatever. Mariamne's sole offence was
having in her girlhood reproached Salome and Cypros with the
meanness of their birth, urged on to do so most probably by
ner designing mother ; and for this offence Salome pursued her
with unrelenting hate, caring for neither falsehood nor murder,
so she at length succeeded in removing her by death. We know
that Mariamne's original offence must have been committed
quite in her girlhood, for, from the time of the death of Aristo-
bulus, Salome commenced her machinations ; and, aware of her
hate and designs against her as she must have been, was it
strange that Mariamne, shrinking from sight of falsehood even
in manner, should treat Salome on all occasions with a reserve
and dignity, which her seditious and violent spirit considered as
haughtiness and insult impossible to be borne, and so aggravat
ing her passionate desire for revenge ?

Such is our dispassionate analysis of Josephus's complex
winding up of the character of Mariamne. We can only entreat
our readers, old and young, to refer to the history itself, and if
our narrative of the same events be deemed erroneous, or prove
to have no foundation on reflection and reason, to draw thence
their own conclusions, and pronounce judgment on the charac
ter of our hapbss ancestress accordingly. We wish merely to
w>?gest, to assist, in the perusal of history, riot to push forward
our individual opinions in opposition to existing authorities, or
in contradiction of established theories ; acknowledging at the
same time boldly and freely, that having long thought neither
Jewish nor Gentile historians have done justice to the personal
character and the painful position of the last proud scion of the
Asmona3an line, we were glad of this opportunity so to bring
her forward, that our readers, perceiving little things and trifling
events more clearly before them than they can be found in a
history of the time, may form their own conclusions.

Long as we have already lingered, our task were scarcely
accomplished, did we not endeavor to " point a moral" in
this eventful tale. Let not our young sisters turn from its
perusal, in that sadness and sinking of the heart which must
accompany the first conviction, that virtue, and goodness,
and truth, are not rewarded upon earth ; that in Salome

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 237

they perceive guilt and crime triumphant, prosperous, rejoicing ;
in Mariamne, the virtuous falling a victim to the sinful,
truth crushed by falsehood, innocence by guilt ; Herod living
out his days, surrounded by temporal prosperity, power, magni
ficence, conquering alike foes abroad and seditions at home
—courted by foreign potentates — allied to the empress of
the world ; — Aristobulus the young, the innocent, the gifted,
cut off by the dark deeds of this very man, in his first and
loveliest youth. To the unenlightened and the sceptic, these
are truths fraught with darkness and suffering, likely to
lead to the fearful labyrinth of denial and atheism — neces
sity and nature. To the believer, be his actual creed
what it may, so it be founded on the revelation of the Old
Testament (which Christian as well as Hebrew is), narra
tives like these are some of the very strongest, most
unanswerable evidences of our immortality which history pre
sents. In the history of Jeroboam, we find the foundation and
commentary on this assertion. His young son Abijah fell
sick, and Jeroboam desired his wife to take a present in her
hand, and seek Ahijah the prophet, to implore his intercession
for the restoration of the child. The aged prophet was blind,
and though the wife of Jeroboam concealed her rank and name,
and sought to pass herself for another woman, the Lord revealed
her name and mission, and Ahijah, after prophesying the awful
calamities which would befall the house of Jeroboam for
their iniquities, proceeded to pronounce these impressive and
remarkable words, " Arise thou, therefore, get thee to thine
:>wn home, and whet, thy feet enter into the city the child
shall die. And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury
him, for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, BECAUSE

IN HIM THERE WAS FOUND SOME GOOD THING TOWARD THE

LORD GOD OF ISRAEL, IN THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM." If
we would but remember this striking fact, revealed as it is
in the inspired word of the Eternal, to be our consolation
and instruction in those darker ages, when such direct com-
munings with our Father in Heaven were to be at an end ;
even Profane History would strengthen us in our belief, and
reveal many times the truth of our immortality.

We should cease to regard death with the horror which
its very name often inspires, if we would but realize it, no? as the

238 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

cessation of existence, but as the revealed entrance into anothe?
and purer sphere, where every intellectual capacity every capa
bility of love and affection, every aspiring after the great
and good, the beautiful and true, which has blessed us here,
will find exercise and fulfilment, completion and perfection. If
we believe in a God, and that He is, as He revealed Himself, a
God of TRUTH, we must believe in our existence elsewhere,
or this world is chaos — our God but a name, His word false.
We could write more, much more on this argument, but this is
not the place. Writing for professed Israelites, we must
suppose that their belief in immortality, in death, not as a
cessation, but as a change of existence, is as fixed as their belief
in their Fathers' God ; and if it be, we shall find little difficulty
in removing all impression of doubt and sadness from the history
of Mariamne.

The iniquities of Judea and her children at the period of
Herod, and some years before, far exceeded, in magnitude
and variety, those of Israel in the time of Jeroboam. If
we glance forward from the reign of Herod, we shall perceive
misery increasing on every side — horrors multiplying — man
rising against man, more appallingly, more terribly, than
had ever before devastated this beautiful world. In addition to
the tale of Jeroboam's son, we are told in the same Divine
Book, " The righteous is taken from the evil to come." And in
the death of Aristobulus and Mariamne, both these Divine
Truths are fulfilled. " There was good" found in Aristobulus ;
and God, in His mercy, over-ruled the wickedness of man,
to the eternal blessedness of the youth he loved. He took him,
ere temptation and evil could sully the purity and virtue which
his youth revealed. Every kind of death is suffering. It is the
penalty we all pay for the sinful inclinations inherited from our
first parents ; but what was the agony of a violent death,
granted it lasted an hour, compared with the eternity of bliss
awaiting the released spirit with its pitying God 1 The sin of
Herod was the same. That the Eternal overruled his hate arid
persecution of the innocent, to the endless joy and peace of his
victim, in no way exonerated him from the blackness of the
deed. Crime is crime. The worker of sin looks but to the
triumph of his wickedness, and, as such, is responsible to
his God ; but his evil deeds, however .he^ may seem tc

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 239

earry all before them while below, do but add a glory to
the Divine economy above, and for those they seek to injuro
upon earth, provide yet deeper bliss in heaven.

As it was with Aristobulus, so it was with Mariamne. Her
life was, indeed, one of far severer trials, far deeper agony
than his ; but God saw she needed them to fit her for heaven,
or they would not have been sent. There might have been
inclinations and whisperings of evil naturally in her heart,
which, without the trial of suffering, might have made her ano
ther Alexandra or Salome ; but God loved her, and so He
purified her in the ordeal of suffering, and then in His deep
mercy took her to Himself ere the evil days came, and she saw
her beloved children tortured and condemned. If we look for
ward in the history of her family, we must feel that she was
indeed removed from the " evil to come." The Eternal might,
indeed, had He so willed, have " made bare His holy arm," and
wrought salvation and delivery for her even on earth ; but
to make such a distinction between the righteous and the
wicked in this world, would interfere with the free will, to
choose the good and eschew the evil, or choose the evil
and forsake the good, which God himself bestowed on man.
No ; in this life, evil will often appear to be predominant ; but
we shall cease to murmur and despond that so it is, if we
will but look up firmly and faithfully to that world, where
all that is incomprehensible here will be made clear, and
the injured and the innocent live for ever with their God, shining
as the chosen "jewels" of His crown.

Do not then let us envy the prosperous, and believe ourselves
forsaken, if our sojourn on earth be one of adversity and pain.
We have still a Father who loveth those whom He chastises,
for by chastisement and probation He prepares them for that
eternal blessedness which is denied to those who continue in
their hardened course. In direct opposition to the comforting
words we have quoted, we read in the same inspired book,
" When the wicked spring up like grass, and when all the
workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed
for ever" And again, " Fret not thyself because of evil doers,
neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity, for they
shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither like the green
herb." If we recollect these words, and those quoted before —
<f we believe, humbly and faithfully, that this world is actually
22

240 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

to the righteous but the threshold of existence, and permit this
belief to attend us, not only in every event, but in every thought
of life, running through our studies from the severest to the
lightest, history would not be the sad and unsatisfactory task
which it but too often is. We should never feel saddened and
depressed at the often apparent triumph of oppression and evil
over the helpless and the good, for we should know this was
but the surface, whose depths were in infinity ; the beginning,
whose end was immortality.

Which of our young readers would, if she could choose,
exchange the trials and death of Mariamne for the prosperous
and unchecked career of Salome ? The inward answer contained
in the first thought would reveal the real state of the heart and
soul to their youthful owner. We ask not the reply, for none
could truly give it. Those who know not, and have never
studied humanity, would loudly condemn the very suspicion,
that preference could be accorded to the career (remember we
do not say the character) of Salome ; but the earnest and heart
felt student of humanity knows that the human heart of itself
is but too often "deceitful above all things, and desperately
wicked.1' And though religion and education, vitalized by the
grace of God, can and will subdue these natural inclinations,
still it is only inward questions such as these which will reveal
whether indeed every seed of evil has been trampled down and
rooted out. And, therefore, is it good so to cultivate self-
knowledge, that even the characters of ages past may aid us on
through the dark and dangerous paths of our present life !

The sinfulness of Salome would warn us from such choice :
but there may be many youthful hearts to think and feel, that
to be prosperous is not always to be wicked — to pass through
life without trial, does not always prove our non-acceptance with
the Lord. And they are right: but our question condenses
itself into simply this — would we choose a life of prosperity and
joy loithout religion— without that internal communing with
our Father in heaven which bids us think of, and fits us for
heaven ; or a life of trial with it, with that religion which i oi
only sustains but blesses — which gi /es us joy in the very midst of
grief, strength in' the midst of weakness, hope beyond the grave,
in the dark shadow of death — assurances of unending love in
loneliness, of sympathy in misconception and suspicion, of one
who will nevev leave us nor forsake, however every friend depavta

PERIOD VI. MiRIAMNE 241

by change or death, of that realization of immortality^ which
bids us walk this world as a bird that passeth, and in his very
resting sees afar, and yearneth for his native clime. According to
the inward answer, so are our hearts right or wrong, in their
secret thoughts of God.

Such were the trials, and such the infused strength of
Mariamne. As a woman of Israel— to whom these things were
known and felt by the faithful, far more vividly then than now
— we may rest assured that her pure chastity, her high sense
of rectitude, her unvarying truth and collected dignity, in the
very midst of trials and temptations, which in those dark times
must have morally and spiritually lowered any ordinary woman,
had their foundation and constancy in religion alone. Nothing
else could have sustained her, or withheld her so completely
from the committal of a single fault, or even venial error, which
could throw a shadow on her name. To realize to the full the
beauty of her character, we must think of the age in which she

lived the wickedness with which she was surrounded— the

false notions of right and wrong with which her own mother
souo-ht to mislead her unguarded youth — the laxity of morals,
even in Judea, from her amalgamation with the heathen nations
—and the intensity of suffering to which as a wife and sister,
queen and mother, she was so constantly and cruelly exposed—
these considerations, added to her extreme youth, must excite
our love and admiration yet more than our pity, for we know
that her death was not only the cessation of sorrow, but the
commencement of an eternity of bliss. " To believe in the
heroic makes heroes," we have lately read ; and there is a world
of solid truth in those brief words : and even so, to admire virtue
with the pure fresh feelings of the unsophisticated heart, will excite
to virtuous deeds. The trials of the wife of Herod are no longer ours
to encounter ; but without trial who may pass through life ? And
oh however deceived insulted, wearied, let us never stoop to
use the weapons of revenge, but calmly and steadily pursue
our suffering course, as pure, as true, as nobly, as Mariamne I

Before entirely leaving this subject, we will take a hasty glance
over the fate of the characters so intimately connected with the
history of Mariamne.

Herod's after career will be found in the historians of the
times— suffice it to state here, that if ever retribution were per
mitted to be visible in this world, we can trace it in the tortures,

242 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

physical and mental, which afflicted him, from the moment of
his wife's murder, to his own death, not only as concerned him
individually, but in the continued plots and misery which,
through the fiendish machinations of Salome, devastated hia
household.

A pestilential disease breaking out just after Mariamne'a
murder, and carrying off immense numbers, appears to have
been so universally felt as Divine vengeance and wrath for the
iniquitous deed, that her innocence, if it had ever been doubted,
must from that moment have been publicly acknowledged, and
Herod regarded with increased loathing as her unjustifiable
murderer. Overpowered by mental agony, he went from place
to place, from solitude to solitude, in the vain search for peace.
The body succumbed to the torture of the mind, and a fierce
incurable disease seizing him while at Samaria, confined him
there for several months, and without any intermission of pain.

The mother who could insult her innocent and only child on
her way to death — who could at such a moment think only of
endeavoring to preserve her own life, and seek to do so by false
accusations of her own offspring — was not likely to be much
affected by her loss. No misfortune, no bereavement, no
personal imprisonment, appears to have had any effect in
decreasing that fearful thirst for ambition which was the secret
origin of all Alexandra's own crimes, and much of her children's
miseiy. Hearing of Herod's incurable distemper at Samaria,
she commenced her machinations by endeavoring to obtain
possession of the fortifications of Jerusalem, in which place she
resided. One of these commanded the Temple ; and she knew
if this were obtained, tho whole nation would be in her power ;
for without the temple there could be no sacrifices, and without
these daily holocausts, universal rebellion wouM inevitably ensue.
These strongholds she demanded in the nan?e of Mariamne's
eons, on the plea of guarding them for the young princes, in case
of their father's death. The link, however, which bad in former
times united the populace to Alexandra, had been snapt asunder
by the death of Mariamne. There could be no belief in her
fidelity to the interests of her grandsons, when her unnatural
conduct to her own child was remembered, and she was now
yet more an object of popular hate and indignation than Herod
himself. Her schemes were all frustrated — first by th-e positive
refusal of the governor of the fortifications to *ake anv step till

PERIOD VI. MARIAMNE. 243

the actual death of the king ; and secondly, and still more
effectually, by the betrayal of her machinations : and Herod,
though scarcely able to move or breathe from physical torture,
gave instant orders for her execution.

The fate of Alexandra was, then, the same as Mariamne's; but
how differently do we regard it I Her restless intrigues, caring
for neither sin nor shame in their accomplishment ; her fearful
ambition always ending in destruction to the innocent, as well as
to herself; her entire want of all human feelings, from first to
last, save in her grief for Aristobulus, and those, too, her after
conduct bids us trace more to the agony of mortified ambition
than of maternal bereavement, all compel us actually to recoil
from the contemplation of her character, and deprive us of all
sympathy in her fate.

Had she been other than she was — had she taught her proud
spirit submission, and sought to conciliate, not offend, the female
members of Herod's family, much of misery, both for Mariamne
and herself, might have been averted. We can derive no indi
vidual lesson from her history, save of warning, lest the tempta
tions of this world, luxury and worldliness, the petty ambition of
rivalry in riches and appearance, prejudice and envy, should
distort the fair sweet coloring of humanity, and clothe up our
hearts in the icy mail of selfishness and pride. Alexandra was
not by nature and constitution different from other women ; but
the seeds of sin, of which circumstances and education prevent
our very consciousness, in her obtained ascendency, and crushed
all of human feeling and womanly tenderness, beneath their
poisonous and overspreading weeds.

Her intrigues arid ambition, however, are strong confirmat?ry
proofs of the social position of the Women of Israel in her time.
We see she had full 'iberty to scheme and act, and endeavor,
in more than one instance, to put herself forward in actual oppo
sition to the mighty and magnificent Herod, powerful as he was
in himself, and courted by all foreign states. That she never
mcceeded, showed, indeed, the weakness of her cause, but not
the debasement of her social condition. There could have been
no law existing, either written or oral, to the disparagement
of women at the time, or her natural position would have
rendered her too powerless and insignificant even for the forma
tion of intrigues, much less to permit their importance in the
eyes of Herod, and consequent persecution of herself.

244 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

The mother of Herod is mentioned no more in history, and
not being a woman of Israel, we are not even bound to follow
Salome's sinful course any further ; but for the completion of the
history, we will sketch briefly as may be, the continuance of her
career. Her first public act after the death of her victim, for
such undoubtedly Matiamne was, was in defiance of all Jewish
law and womanly delicacy, to send a bill of divorce to her husband
Costabarus, with whom she had quarrelled, excusing the deed to
Herod by telling him that it was for his sake she had thus acted ;
having discovered that Costabarus had joined in a conspiracy
against him, and had also preserved alive, in direct contradiction to
Herod's orders (issued twelve years before), the sons of Babas,
men of th« Asmonsean line, and in great favor with the multitude,
jcieing found in the place designated by Salome, they were all
slain; and Costabarus, with four other of Herod's intimate
friends, executed on Salome's charge. The sons of Babas were
the very last even distantly connected with the Maccabsean line ;
and Herod now reigned unencumbered with a single remaining
family of sufficient rank and dignity to interfere with or prevent
his denationalization of Judsea.

Sixteen or eighteen years passed, and we read nothing of
Salome; but from the moment of Alexander's and Aristobulus'
return to Judaea her hatred against Mariamne seemed rekindled
towards her sons, and her machinations recommenced. The
young princes had been educated at Rome, and were received by
the Jewish population with such enthusiastic delight as appears
to have reawakened the old hatred of the Asmonean line. The
princes bore in their majestic mien and noble features, all the
characteristics of their mother's race. The intervening years
seem to have had as little power to deaden the people's love for
their native princes as to diminish Salome's hate. They could
scarcely have arrived at Jerusalem ere the calumnies and sus
picions against them commenced, not indeed as yet conveyed to
Herod by his sister, but reports raised abroad, that they had
been heard to speak reproachfully against their father as their
mother's murderer, and boldly to assert their own belief in her
innocence and virtue. These rumors of course reached Herod's
ear, and reviving all the thoughts and tortures of previous years,
shook the affection he was beginning to feel towards his sons, and
his naturally jealous and suspicious temper regained ascendency.

Still, though shaken, he pursued his more kindly intention

PERIOD VI. SALOME. 245

towards his sons, marrying both with great splendor, to wives
of their own rank ; Alexander, to Glaphyra, daughter of Arche-
laus, king of Cappadocia, a union which, if approved of by the
people, clearly demonstrates how completely the Laws of Moses
were put aside or observed, according to the caprice of the king,
and how little that power can be supposed to realize the pro
mises of the prophets : Aristobulus to Berenice, the daughter of
Salome. That she should consent to give her daughter to a
man she hated, and whose destruction she had resolved to com
pass, may excite some surprise, but is fully explained by the
issue. Whether the princess Berenice's affections were excited
towards her husband, or not, we know not ; but even had they
been, Salome herself was too completely void of any human or
womanly feeling, to permit such affection to interfere with her
designs, or care for the suffering which in that case she inflicted
on her child. She permitted, nay, probably proposed the union,
to obtain a spy on Aristobulus' most private moments and most
unguarded words ; and that Berenice could be persuaded, as
Josephus tells us, into "ill-nature" against her husband, and to
" gratify her mother," forge the most improbable tales concern
ing her husband's private speeches, argues but too painfully
that the character of Salome found its reflection in her daughter ;
and Berenice married Aristobulus not from affection, but only to
aid her mother's plans.

We have no space, nor is this the work, to dilate on all the
fearful machinations pursued by Salome and her party, against
these ill-fated young men. The unsuspicious candor, the open
independence, and courageous assertion of their mother's honor,
against all who purposely assailed it, were no match for the
fiendish subtlety which marked every word and movement of
Salome. They actually regarded her as their best friend, at the
very period that her every energy was used in maddening the
king against them, till he himself urged on their destruction
with the violence and hatred of a demon. The law of Moses,
totally disregarded in the condemnation of Mariamne, and the
marriage of Alexander with a heathen, was now used by the
infatuated father as a reason for his demanding the execution
of his sons.* For five or seven years these machinations worked
ere their end was accomplished by the actual destruction of the

• Joaephus, Antiquities, book xvi. chap. xi.

246 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

victims ; and during that interval, the most awful state of sus
picion from one man to another, obtained possession not of the
court alone, but of the whole population. Executions were con
stantly occurring. Men accused, however innocent, and tortured
into confessions of guilt, which included many others — dark
doubts of friend against friend — brother against brother — till
all of nature itself and human affections appeared to succumb
beneath the baleful influence of suspicion and distrust ; and all
this was a woman's work, and originated in a woman's hate,
called forth by the petty feelings of jealousy and envy.

In Josephus we find an elaborate, in Milman a clear and suc
cinct account of this fearful period of Herod's reign. To these we
refer our readers : suffice it here to state, that Salome's hate was
gratified. The gifted and accomplished sons of Mariamne shared
their mother's fete : and though the dark deed recoiled with
horror and murder on many of its perpetrators, Salome herself
remained uninjured by the shock, spared to work out her own
destiny, and in another world receive its recompense.

But let it not be imagined that hate and its concomitant
desire of injury were the only characteristics of Salome ; her life
was one continued course of intrigue, alike political and personal.
We do not linger on them ; for there can be neither profit nor
pleasure in so doing. Her treatment of Costabarus we already
know ; and before she was married to Alexas, some years after
wards, her conduct had been such as to excite the shame and
abhorrence of even those licentious times. Her third husband
was Alexas, one of Herod's favorites, and with him she appears to
have lived more peacefully and honorably than with his prede
cessors. That, with all her fearful deeds and thoughts, she was
a woman of masculine intellect and immense capability, is proved
by the consummate skill and talent with which she always con
trived and carried out her nefarious plans. Often in danger, but
never outwitted, she repeatedly saw her companions in iniquity
fall victims to their own arts against others, while she hersel.
remained untouched and unsuspected. None bu} a clever woman
could so have intrigued, and kept up such a continued course of
fraud, deceit, and falsehood, without ever injuring herself. But
Low fearfully do those very talents and capabilities increase her
responsibility and her guilt !

The only act recorded of her of a somewhat superior nature to
those we have touched upon, was her releasing from the Hippo*

PERIOD VI. SALOME. 247

drome all those Jewish nobles and elders whom Herod had
collected there, commanding them to be slain the moment of
his own death, that there might be a general mourning in Judea.
Before the king's death was publicly known, Salome and Alexaa
gave them freedom, desiring them, in Herod's name, to ^return
to their own lauds. Remembering the character of Salome
we must believe this action, like all the rest, had its origin in
policy not in goodness. Had obedience to Herod's command
been equally politic, we should undoubtedly have read of their
execution instead of their release.

So skilfully had she contrived to retain her brother's affections,
that, though it was to her machinations alone he actually owed
all his domestic, and consequent mental misery, Herod remem
bered her largely in his will, leaving her the cities of Jamnia,
Ashdod, and^Phasaelis, with five hundred thousand drachma} in
silver. To her too was intrusted his letter to the soldiery,
thanking them for their fidelity to himself, and exhorting them
to grant the same to his son, Archelaus, whom he had
appointed king. Salome read it herself to the soldiery, whom
her commands had mustered in the amphitheatre, and the
appointment was received with acclamations.

But our intrigues were not yet over. A sedition in Jerusa
lem, soon after the accession of Archelaus, though subdued and
punished, urged the young monarch to journey to Rome, there
to defend his conduct, and obtain the confirmation of his
father's will. Thither Salome and her whole family accom
panied him, ostensibly to use her influence with Augustus in his
favor, secretly to work against him, by encouraging Antipas,
another of Herod's sons, to come to Rome, and promising him
her aid with the emperor to displace his brother. False charges
were accordingly brought against Archelaus by a son of
Salome, as subtle and intriguing as his mother; and after
a variety of delays and pleadings, Archelaus was appointed
by the emperor ethnarch over half the territory left him by
Herod (a poor substitute for the title and power of king), and
the remainder divided between two of his brothers, Philip
and Antipas. Here again we trace the workings of Saloue'a
intrigues, paving the way for the complete reduction to a Roman
province of that beautiful land which her brother had so
strenuously sought to denationalize. With herself, all pros
pered. Besides confirming to her the legacy of her brother,

248 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Augustus conferred the royal residence of Askelon ; and alter*
nately here and at Rome she seems to have passed the remain*
ing years of her existence.

As we do not read any further record of her interference
in the government, we are to suppose that she confined her sub-
tilty to more private life. She lived long enough to behold the
transient kingdom of Herod swallowed up in the dominion of
the Romans : her nationality, her glory, her laws, all trampled
underfoot by the heathen power that overran the land. But tc
Salome this must have been rather a source of rejoicing *han of
grief. Judging by her acts, she never loved Judaea, nay,
had shared her brother's resolution to hurl it from its r>roud
supremacy as the chosen kingdom of the Lord; and" this
was done. The banishment of Archelaus gave the government
into the hands of Roman procurators; and two years afterwards
Salome closed her iniquitous career, leaving all her cities to the
empress Julia, thus confirming our assertion, that neither by
birth nor adoption, character nor feeling, was she a daughter of
Jerusalem.

Glad to quit such a subject of dissatisfaction and pain, we
leave to our readers' own minds all reflections on the character
of Salome, bidding them only remember that, awful as is
the picture of female depravity, it is truth, not fiction, and
therefore demands our serious consideration as to the origin of
these over-spreading crimes. The seeds of wickedness are
BO small as to be invisible, religion only can destroy thorn
ere they are discovered ; and Salome knew not GOB.

CHAPTER X.

HELENA, QUEEN OF ADIABEN E. B E B E N I 0 JC.

THIRTY years passed : the miseries of Judaea and her hapless
people increased. The Law of Moses was still, indeed, tho
religion of the country; in some hearts pure and spiritual

PERIOD VI. HELENA. 249

as it had been given, in others burdened with superstition, vio
lence, and minutiae wholly foreign to its beautiful consistency:
in others fast giving place to the customs and habits of the
Romans. Darkness — moral, intellectual, and spiritual — had
gathered over the nation as a whole. God had left them
in His wrath to pursue their own hardened course ; but even at
this period, when the true religion seemed fast fading from
the earth, a ray of reviving lustre beamed exactly in confirma
tion of the consoling theory, that God never leaves Himself
without witnesses upon earth.

Helena, queen of Adiabene, a district beyond the Tigris, bad
embraced Judaism. An independent sovereign, whose dominion
ovei her own subjects was absolute, and whose actions owned no
supremacy but her own will, this act must have been both
voluntary and from conviction. It could have no ulterior
motive in ambition, for Judaja was not only tinder iron subjection
to the Romans, bat devastated by famine and disease. Izates,
the son of Helena, had been sent by his father, Moriobazus,
to be educated at the court of Abenerig, king of Characene,
a distnct on the Persian Gulf. While there, he became
acquainted with Anar«ia,s, a Hebrew merchant, who, in his com
mercial character, had frequent access to the women's apart
ments, j»nd never lost an opportunity of inculcating the tenets
of his faith. Izates, who had married the daughter of Abenerig,
appears i<y have been present at these conferences, and also
became a convert, by a curious coincidence, at the very
time that his mother, Helena, embraced the religion also. So
earnest was Izates in the cause, that, on his return to his coun
try, and accession, after his father's- death, he insisted on
being receive! into the covenant of Abraham, against the
advice of his mother, and even Ananias, who appears to have
accompanied the young monarch as his chosen counsellor
and friend. Izates had not the right of primogeniture to
his father's crown ; and knowing that he had very many
enemies in the partisans of his brothers, Helena, though an
earnest convert herself, feared that such a public departure from
the religion of his country would create sedition and rebellion in
his people. Izates at first yielded to her counsel ; but his
inclinations receiving fresh incentive from the representations
of Eleazar, a learned Galilasan Jew, and his own impressions of
a frequent and earnest study of the Law of Moses, he was

250 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

received into the covenant of Abraham, and no evils followed ;
for, to use here the words of Josephus, " it was God who hin
dered what they feared from taking effect, and preserved
both Izates himself and his sons from many dangers, and
procured their deliverance when it seemed impossible, demon
strating thereby that the fruit of piety does not perish, for those
who have regard for Him, and for their faith upon Him
only.*

But Helena's conversion is of more importance to our present
subject than that of Izates. Her zeal was so earnest, her faith
so heartfelt, that, when her natural anxiety was calmed by the
peace and prosperity which followed her son's profession of
Judaism, she requested his permission to make a journey to
Jerusalem, and worship at the holy temple there. This was, at
that time, no trifling undertaking. Travelling was dangerous
and fatiguing ; Judaea in constant petty warfare, and almost
exhausted by a severe and long-continued famine. But Helena,
who appears a woman of great energy, did not hesitate
to incur all these evils, so that she could but offer her sacrifice
of thanksgiving in the chosen house of God. Izates readily
acceded, making lavish preparations for her journey according
to her rank, bestowing on her large sums of money ; and, in the
true spirit of the religion they had both professed, which so
inculcated filial respect and love, he himself accompanied her
great part of her journey.

The famine raging in Jerusalem would have terrified away
any less zealous convert ; but Helena quietly took up her abode
in the distressed city, making it her business to relieve the
sufferers by munificent gifts both of food and money. She
despatched some of her household to Alexandria to purchase
large quantities of corn, and others to Cyprus, for a cargo of
dried figs; and, both missions accomplished with unusual
promptness, and relief most judiciously bestowed, the memory
of Queen Helena long lingered with the oppressed people ; and
her acts are recorded by Josephus with a feeling and impressive-
ness which are not often found in his details. Izates too, on
being informed of the famine, sent large sums to the principal
men in Jerusalem. Both himself and his mother appeared
eager to demonstrate the truth and sincerity of their ?onversion,

» Josephus, Ant. b. xx. c. 2.

PERIOD VI. HELENA. 251

by their earnest endeavors for the good of the Jewish people ; a
etriking contrast to the conduct of those Idumaean proselytes,
whose only desire had been to Romanize the people, and
amalgamate with the heathen both their religion and their land.
How long Helena dwelt in Jerusalem does not appear ; b^t,
from the go°od she accomplished, and the magnificent tombs, or
pyramids, which she erected about three furlongs from Jerusa
lem, we are led to suppose that she had adopted the country as
well as the religion for her own, and dwelt there the greater
portion of the remainder of her life. Her strong affection for
Izates demanded a powerful incentive to her living apart from
him, and that incentive appears to have been, the delight of
worshipping the Eternal in his temple ; the privileges of obeying
every tittle of his law more faithfully and precisely than she
could have done in her own land ; and the constant kindness and
good works to the Hebrew people, with which she proved her
piety and zeal. The death of Izates, after a prosperous reign
of twenty-four years, caused the deepest affliction to his mother,
for not only were they bound together by the adoption of the
same creed, which drew the human affections still closer than
merely natural ties ; but Josephus alludes to him as a most
dutiful and affectionate son. One consolation, however, she had ;
the privileges and principles of Judaism were not all lost to her
country, by the death of Izates. The crown of Adiabene went
to Monobazus, her eldest son, who had also embraced Judaism ;
. and Helena, though aged and infirm, and bowed down by her
sad bereavement, hastened to Adiabene, to congratulate and
bless him on his accession. Izates had left the crown to his
brother, instead of to either of his own sons, in gratitude for the
fidelity and affection which, although put aside for the accession
of a younger brother, Monobazus had always proved. Helena,
however did not long survive Izates ; she died at Adiabene.
And Monobazus, in dutiful obedience to the last wishes of his
mother and brother, had their remains transported to Jerusalem,
where they were interred in the splendid mausoleum erected by
Helena, no doubt with that intent.

The history of Helena is a refreshing picture of feminine
gentleness and family love, after the fearful deeds and characters
we have of late perused. There is a gentle womanly disposi
tion, apparent even in her appeal to the people after her
husband's death, a horror of violence and severity, peculiarly

252 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

consisting with her true feminine qualities : " I believe you ar*
not unacquainted, that my husband was desirous that Izatea
should succeed him in the government, and thought him not
unworthy so to do," was her calm address, whose only eloquence
was sincerity and truth. " However, I wait your determination,
for happy is he who receives a kingdom not from a sino-Jo
person only, but from the willing suffrages of a great many.'*

When the amour propre of a nation is thus conciliated, their
decision is generally sure to be the decision desired. Unani
mously they pressed forward to pay homage to their queen, and
confirm their late king's resolution, advjsing at the same time
the death of all the brethren and kinsmen of Izates, to secure
him on the throne. But Helena's gentle spirit shrank from so
fearful a deed, though of Izates' brethren only one was her own
son. She calmed the popular excitement, by thanking them
for their zeal, but desiring them to postpone such violent
measures till Izates returned, and should himself think them
expedient. The multitude consented, only exhorting her to
restrain them in bonds for their own security, till the arrival of
Izates, and to set up some one in whom she could place perfect
trust, as regent of the kingdom in the meantime. Had Helena
been an ambitious, or a politic and suspicious woman, it would
have been very easy for her to have retained the regency
herself; and had she not had perfect trust in the honor and
affection of her eldest son, both for herself and Izates, she could
not have confided the kingly power to his keeping, even placing
the diadem upon his head, and the sigiiet on his hand, endow
ing him with full powers as sovereign till Izates' return. Few
characters could have sustained this ordeal, and resigned a
power, tne sweets of which had been fully tasted, to a younger
brother; yet Monobazus did so: and in this very deed," and in
the confidence ao^ affection existing uninterruptedly between
the brothers tht^aghout their lives, as in the beauty and
unselfish honesty of their mutual characters, we read a still
clearer commentary on the true character of their mother, than
in her own acts, gentle and full of beauty as they were.

None but a mother's judicious training and impartial love
could so have united her sons, that the elder could submit to
the superiority of the younger without jealousy and resistance.
Milman, indeed, attributes to the sedition of Monobazus, th«
attacks c! the Arabian and Parthian kings ; but as Josephus, who

PERIOD VI. HELENA 255

might have been living at the very time of these events, doe>
not give us any warrant for the surmise, we reject it altogether.
According to him, it was the desire of Monobazus, and other of
the king's kindred, to become Jews, which roused the Adiabe-
nians to revolt, and to invite foreign 'potentates against their
king. In fact, every war in which Izates was engaged,
originated in the annoyance of his subjects at his embracing
Judaism ; but he remained firm and unshaken in the religion,
embraced not from ambition but conviction, and he triumphed
over both foreign and domestic foes.

The character of Helena would have ornamei. ted any reli
gion ; but we can discern throughout it the pure spirituality at
that period only discoverable in the religion of the Lord.
Her disposition naturally clinging and gentle, her heart capable
of the strongest emotions, her mind constantly urging to the
good, could not rest satisfied with Heathen worship. She was
instructed in the Jewish tenets ; their spirituality, their tempo
ral consolation, their eternal hope, and infinite love ; their vast
capabilities for exercising the intellect and heart, filled up the
void which Heathenism could not ; and Helena believed : and
she bore witness, throughout the whole tenor of her after life,
to the sincerity and purity of that belief.

Now would this, could this conversion have taken place, if
the Jewish religion degraded women to the rank of slaves and
heathens? This single story would be sufficient to prove the
groundless falsity of the charge. Helena was a powerful and
respected queen and mother in her own nation, accustomed to
receive homage, to be consulted, to make use of her intellect
and political sagacity ; to take, in fact, a higher and more
esteemed grade than was the general condition of Heathen
women ; and is it likely she would sacrifice all these privileges
of sex and station, by the adoption of a religion which deprived
her of both ? What would have been the use of her conver
sion, if there were any ground for the false assertion that women
have no souls, and neither the form nor the spirit of religion is
incumbent upon them ? Had her conversion taken place when
Israel was at the height of her temporal and spiritual glory —
when a world acknowledged her holy supremacy, and sought
her friendship as a land divinely favored — there might have
been a doubt allowable as to whether Helena sought the safety
and increase of her temporal dominions in the public profession

254 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Df Judaism ; but no such doubt can attach itself to the purity
of her motives when we reflect on the then position of Judea.
There could be neither glory nor satisfaction in uniting herself
with a nation sunk to the very lowest ebb of degradation, hover
ing, as it were, on the very brink of annihilation. But one
motive could have actuated her ; and that was the natural
craving for a revealed religion, peculiar to dispositions such as
hers. But Judaism would not have satisfied those cravings, if
it really were the stern, harsh, exclusive superstition wuich it is
by some proclaimed ; if its ordinances were for man, and woman
were a mere cypher in its laws. But such Judaism was
unknown, till the slanders of modern times so reported it.
Helena read in the Law of Moses the tender, pitying care of
woman, in all her varied relations and positions of life, as we
have endeavored to display it in our Second Period. She read
that a Father had promised a place in His house, dearer even
than sons and daughters, to all who kept His sabbaths and
embraced His covenants, and therefore it was she believed ; and
in her earnest zeal parted from her beloved children, left a home
of peace and luxury, where she was known, respected, loved —
to journey many toilsome and weary leagues, only for the hap
piness of sacrificing offerings of thanksgiving to the Lord of
Hosts, who had in His mercy given her the knowledge of Him
self. Famine and misery were around her in Jerusalem ; she
must have seen many painful evidences that the holy religion
she had embraced was desecrated by its own offspring ; that social
iniquities and individual apostasies were throwing a dark barrier
between the Jew and his God ; yet she never wavered, devoting
her fortune and her energies to deeds of kindness, charity, and
love ; thus proving how completely she had become one with
the people whose religion she professed.

If woman were prohibited the privilege of sacrifice, etc., is it
jkely we should find Josephus recording the visit of a female
proselyte to Jerusalem for that sole purpose ? or Helena herself
BO anxious to obey the ordinances of the Law ? It is needless
to continue the argument, the fact contains in itself the strong
est refutation of the charge levelled by the ignorant against us.
The prejudices of education may endear even superstition or
neathenism to its votaries themselves ; but we may rest assured
that no woman, respected and elevated by the customs and
habits of her original creed and native subjects, would volunta-

PERIOD VI. BERENICE. 255

rily adopt another tending to enslave and to debase her. He
lena's virtue and intellect had raised her above her natio n and
her age, occasioning a void and loneliness which urged her to
seek and find repose in unusual studies. To define the void
might have been even to herself impossible, until the word of
Go1i, explained by an earnest and pious Israelite, at once
revealed and filled it ; and in its inexhaustible fullness satisfied
her woman heart on earth, and pointed with an angel-finger to
another world, where all the pantings of intellect and affection
would find sufficiency and rest ; and hope, yet dearer, where
she and her beloved ones would meet again, and be with Israel's
God for ever ! To some women (Salome and Alexandra for
instance), these considerations would be of little value ; but to
characters such as Helena of Adiabene, they would mark
their immortal truth, in the glow of joy and blissful calm inse
parable from real religious faith, pervading for the first time an
awakened human heart.

The first year of the Jewish war, G6 of the Christian era,
presents us with a striking illustration of the Hebrew female's
capability and freedom to make and to fulfil singular vows.
The fact is briefly recorded, and trifling in itself, but important,
as the only instance of the kind mentioned in our history. That
there wece many others, is more than likely. No law was insti
tuted by our great lawgiver which had not its practical illustra
tion in the history of his people. Nor would the law of vows
of either kind, " singular or Nazarite," have formed part of the
given code, if their necessity had not been visible in the wants
and customs of the multitude. That we have only one recorded
instance of its obedience by a woman of Israel, does not prove
its previous disuse, but that those who had occasion to make
and fulfil singular vows, were in too domestic and retired a
position to obtain the notice of the historian. The manner in
which Josephus alludes to it, marks it of frequent, not of singu
lar occurrence, a custom in fact of the nation, in case of " dis
tempers or other distresses."*

The subject of this " singular vow" is one that we may per
haps be blamed for introducing into our pages, her character,
tccordino to some of the Latin historians, being of doubtful

» Josephus's Wars, book ii. ch. 15.

256 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

reputation. As, however, this calumny cannot be- proved — as,
being a woman of Israel by birth and creed, she was an object
of prejudice and aversion to the Romans ; and as the satirists
then, as now, hesitated not to calumniate innocence and blacken
Deputation, only to provide themselves with a jest — we are not
bound to credit the assertions of either class of writers. A
glance over the appendix to the fifth book of Tacitus's History
will show the unfavorable light in which his nation was accus
tomed to regard the belief, customs, and ordinances of Judaism :
and, therefore, it is more than likely that the very fact of Bere
nice being a Jewish woman unusually beautiful and gifted,
admired by Vespasian, and actually beloved ard nearly wedded
by Titus, should have excited the extreme jealousy of the
biomans, from which calumny and suspicion, however base and
unfounded, are sure to proceed.

Josephus, whose history favors the Romans, and adopts their
views as much as possible, of course insinuates the same scandal,
which, however, he never attempts to prove ; and the only
instance in which he does bring Berenice forward, is not only in
a womanly and amiable, but in a religious and patriotic light.
Had this not been the case, we should have left her to the gene
ral historian ; but as that void in our records is rapidly advanc
ing, where there is scarcely any mention of individuals, male or
female, and the history of the women of Israel is lost in the fear
ful vortex of national misery and subsequent dispersion, we are
glad to seize the faintest and most unfinished notice, which can
in any point confirm our theory and illustrate our laws.

One fact also, our readers must bear in mind ; the period in
which the object of our present notice existed was on" of the
grossest immorality. Custom authorized in many lations,
actually legalized marriages, which, in the earlier stages of the
world, and when the law of God was established and followed,
had been regarded, as they would be now, most unlawful and
impure. The religion of the Hebrews existed but in name. From
the reign of Herod, the denationalization commenced. After
his death, Roman procurators governed and Roman soldiers
over-ran the land ; and such an awful spirit of party divided the
Jews who yet remained, that the neutrals believed the dominion
of the Romans far less evil than the divisions and seditions of
their own. At such an epoch, all statutes, human and divine,
were set aside ; a man did as his neighbor did, and custom

PERIOD VI.— BERENICE. 25*7

*fcone was law. The pure beautiful ordinances, prohibiting too
Lear consanguinity in the marriage ties, were completely laid
aside by the once holy nation for whom they were framed ; and
the family of Herod appeared resolved on assisting their father's
plans for Romanizing the Jewish people, by emulating all the
heathen nations in their utter indifference to the laws of mar
riage,* and framing unions regardless of the ties of relationship
formerly restraining them. The union of brother and sister,
horrible as it reads to us, was then in constant practice amongst
the Egyptians, Syrians, Parthians, and occasionally amongst the
more refined and polished Romans themselves. Nationally,
this was an awful state of society, calling down always the
visible wrath and chastisement of the Eternal, in the annihila
tion of their sinning nations. Individually, the crime was of far
less magnitude ; for many sinned unconsciously, and the horror
and loathing with which Ve look upon these things could not
have been°felt by those to whom custom was authority, —
example, law.

We do not write this to excuse Israel's sinful departure from
the law of Moses : we know the awful magnitude of their iniqui
ties by the appalling nature of their chastisement. We simplj
mention the fact, to remove what would now appear the extreme
sinfulness of Berenice, if the reports against her had foundation ;
which foundation, search history as we may, we cannot find.
Nay, in the extreme laxity of morals and multitude of impure
connexions, we read the probable rise and only source of the
rumors.. Neither satirists nor prejudiced historians were likely
to draw a line between unproved rumor and proved reality ; and
it was enough for them that Berenice was a beautiful Jewess, to
burden her with charges, frivolous and light to them, but
throwing a stain upon her reputation, the blackness of which
could scarcely be known till discovered by the reading of modern
times.

The records of the great-grand-daughter of Mariarane are sc
brief and so little satisfactory, that all we can give is a simple
ttatement of what is not very generally known concerning her ;
her parentage and connexions ; making the link uniting her
irith Jewish and Roman history more distinct than can be the

* Josephus's Antiq. book xviii. ch. 5 and note.

258 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

case with mere general researches : and then revert to the eir
eumstance which is the occasion of this notice.

We have already alluded to the two sons of Mariarane,
Aristobulus and Alexander, and to their marriages ; the former
with his cousin, Berenice, Salome's daughter — the latter with
Glaphyra of Cappadocia. Aristobulus left five children, two of
whom were, Agrippa, afterwards king of Judea, and Herod, king
of Chalcis. Agrippa, himself a grandson of Mariamne, married
Cypros, a grand-daughter of the same princess by her daughtei
Salampsio. By this Cypros, King Agrippa had five children,
two sons — one of whom, Drusus, died young, the other known
as the young Agrippa, was the last of the Idumaeans who even
jominally was king of the Jews, — and three daughters, Berenice,
the object of our sketch, Mariamne, and Drusilla. Berenice was
then great-grand-daughter to Mariamne by both her parents,
and seems to have inherited all the grace and beauty of the Asino-
naean family. In Jewish households there never was any
distinction made between the education of sons and daughters ;
both equally shared the care and instructions of their mother,
who, were she a " Woman of Israel," was always, or ought to
have been, perfectly competent to the task. We find in the
Talmud repeated ordinances to this effect — even so far as to say,
" that if a man marries a woman without education, and only for
her money, he will not have children according to his wishes,"
thus giving an illustration of the laws which we insisted upon in
our Second Period, as including mothers equally with fathers in
the education of their children.

The close connexion of brother and sister we have already
seen in our notice of Aristobulus and Mariamne, and also,
though in a very opposite light, of Herod and Salome, and some
other instances. Sisters were never nonentities in the Jewish
Btate ; they always shared, not the affection alone, but the rank
and influence of their brothers, and were looked on by the
multitude in a much superior light to the female scions of
royalty in more modern times. From the extreme care of
woman in the Jewish laws, the celebrated characters which, as
women, had swelled their history, the custom for females to
inherit when there were no males, the successior. of a wife to the
crown in preference to the sons, all elevated the position of
royal females to a perfect equality, socially considered, with

PERIOD VI. BERENICE. 259

their husbands and brothers, and brought them more forward in
the history of their people than is generally believed.

We are anxious to mark this important fact, because it will
throw light on the true position of Berenice, which, from being
misunderstood by the mere chronicler of the age, is of course
misrepresented, and so mystifies his readers equally with
himself.

There scarcely appears a year's difference in the ages of Herod
Agrippa's elder children, the young Agrippa an$ Berenice,* and
they were, therefore, thrown together as intimately and fondly
as Aristobulus and Mariamne, probably accompanying their
father and mother in all their wanderings, sharing their vicissi
tudes, and educated together in Rome. There were six years
between Berenice and her next sister, Mariamne, and four
between Mariamne and Drusilla ; consequently Berenice could
have had no companion in her own family except her brother,
with whom Agrippa the elder appears always to have associated
her. We suppose this from a sentence in Josephus,f which we
transcribe. Alluding to a slave, from whom Agrippa had
received a trifling kindness, he says, " When afterwards Agrippa
was come to the kingdom, he took particular care of Thau-
mastus, and got him his liberty from Caius, and made him his
steward over his own estates ; and when he died he left him to
Agrippa, his son, and to Berenice, his daughter, to minister to
them in the same capacity."

Now, unless Berenice had been, by her father's will, associ
ated with her brother in the possession and government of these
estates, there would have been no need to mention her name in
conjunction with Agrippa's in so simple a thing as the retaining
a faithful servant in his post. In reading the unsatisfactory
annals of the general historians, we must reason by analogy,
or be for ever groping in the dark, searching for minute but
important facts, and never successful in the search. It must
have been a habit and a common judgment with the father, to
associate his elder children, as mutually and equally concerned
m his public and private affairs, or this charge would not have
been so naturally left. We have the confirmation of this sug
gestion in later notices of Berenice ; but the historians of thai
period forget the sentence we have quoted, though that in itself

• Josephus, Antiq., book xix. ch. 9. t Ibid, book xviii. eh. 6

260 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

is eufficient to account for her influence with Agrippa in the
government, and needs no supposition whatever of a nearer
connexion between them.

The first person to whom Berenice appears to have been
betrothed was Marcus, according to Josephus, a son of Alexan
der Lysimachus, an alabarch who had been imprisoned by
Caligula, and set at liberty and restored to all his former honors
by Claudius, whose intimate friend he was. As Berenice was,
however, only fifteen, if so much, when her father gave her in
.carriage to her uncle, Herod of Chalcis, this could not have
been more than a betrothal entered into while they were chil
dren, as was frequently the custom, but which Marcus did not
live to complete. The intended union, however, is sufficient
proof how little nationality existed in the heart of Agrippa at
that p/eriod. His varied life had naturally occasioned this,
though he appears to have governed his kingdom during his
brief reign with all the feelings of a Hebrew, and to have incul
cated the same in the hearts of his children.

Berenice was the second wife of Herod, whom Agrippa's
influence with Claudius had, before he gave him his daughter,
made king of Chalcis. His first had been Mariamne, grand
daughter of Herod the Great and his Samaritan wife, Malthas.
Berenice appears to have enjoyed six years of a happy, though
uneventful, wedded life with Herod, becoming* the mother of
two sons, Berenicianus and Hyrcanus. Her residence seems,
however, to have been more in the dominions of her father in
Judea, than at Chalcis. Josephus repeatedly alludes to Herod
of Chalcis, as if he were a constant attendant of Agrippa's
court, which accounts for Berenice's interest in the people of
Judea, and being, in fact, more intimately known to them than her
brother Agrippa, who, fo- the last three years, had been finish
ing his education under Claudius Caesar. Herod Agrippa died in
45 ; Berenice was then sixteen ; and Herod of Chalcis, dying in
50, left her a young and beautiful widow of twenty-one. For
fifteen or seventeen years she remained a widow, residing alter
nately at Rome and in Jerusalem. Her father's long residence
in the former place, and intimate connexion and friendship wich
the highest Romans, of course made Rome her second country,
and caused her to be as well known there as in Jerusalem. In
00 we find her in Jerusalem, in pursuance of her singular vow,
ind exposed to great danger from the infuriated Roman soldiery

PERIOD V I . — - B E R E N I C H 261

(to both of which circumstances we will refer at the conclusion
of our sketch). Between 66 and 69 she must have become
queen of Pontus, by her marriage with Polemo, king of that
country, an en^a^ement entered into to silence the tongue of
falsehood, which "had dared charge her with an improper con
nexion \\ilh her brother. Before, however, she consented to the
union, Polemo embraced Judaism, and was received into the
covenant, a proof that even in that dark period of national
apostasy some regard to religious decency was observed. In
69 we find her, as queen of Pontus, embracing the cause of
Vespasian against his rival, Vitellius,* whom the Roman legions
were endeavoring to elect emperor in Vespasian's stead, joining
the confederacy in the latter's favor, and levying troops for his
assistance.

Her marriage with Polemo, however, was not of long con
tinuance. Entered into without love on either side, by her to
prove the utter falsity of a scandalous rumor, by him to obtain
possession of her riches, it was soon dissolved by mutual consent.
Polemo repudiated his Judaism, only embraced for Berenice's
gold ; and Berenice returned to her life of freedom. Then it
was she must have attracted the love of Titus ; for it was in
73f that he would have married her, had he not feared the
violent opposition of the Roman people, then more than usually
incensed against the Jews, from the vast numbers of Romans
who had perished in the Jewish war, and the iaring and noble
opposition to the imperial arms, which the miserable people had
BO very lately made.

Instead of marrying her (a dazzling destiny, which, to one
educated in the Roman school, as had been Berenice, would
have been difficult, if not impossible, to refuse, simply from
national motives), Titus separated from her, and Berenice's life
closed in retirement. Her name is not again mentioned in his
tory, not even her subsequent residence, nor what was her final
lot : this last female representative of the Idumsean and Asmo-
nrean lines is lost to her posterity. We know that Agrippa
lived and died the contented vassal of Rome ; but of his sister,
EO nearly raised to become even empress of the world, thia
icanty detail is refused us ; and we look in vain for her slightest

* Tacitus, Hist., bsok v., sect. 81.

t 73 according Tacitus — 79 according to Goldsmith.

262 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

mention. This is disappointing ; for, in the desolate conditioc
of the Jews, their miseries, martyrdoms, massacres, and disper
sions, we cannot form even an idea of her future destiny. Mil-
man says, that " She returned some years afterwards to Rome,
but never regained her former favor." In that case her resi
dence was probably again with the beloved brother of her
youth ; and on this idea we can rest more satisfied than did we
think of her homeless and .vandering like the remainder of her
wretched nation.

The sketch we have given is all that history, either Jewish or
Roman, records in any connected point of view. Of her
character we can learn little ; but she appears to have been
endowed with those superior qualities which gave her position
and influence both with Jews and Romans. The occasion of
her making the vow which she went to Jerusalem to perform,
history does ncrt mention. But that she did perform it, offer
ing sacrifices for thirty days, is sufficient for us ; by its strong
confirmation of our assertion, that the Jewish religion elevated
woman in all her religious duties and responsibilities to a per
fect equality with man. Berenice, too, lived at the very time
in which our opponents declare the religion of God had been so
changed and abused by mistaken zealots, as imperatively
to need reform and extermination, which Jesus was sent to
accomplish. Whatever these zealots might have done, they
certainly could not have deprived woman of her spiritual privi
leges, and denied her the power of either performing her vow
or offering sacrifices, or Berenice would not have come to
Jerusalem, then in a most awful state of misery and constant
murders, expressly for the observance of the forms necessary to
its fulfilment : nay, she could not have made the vow at all,
if she had not had perfect liberty, spiritual and temporal, so
to do.

This fact, then, is very important in our history, as women of
Israel, and has nothing whatever to do with the private charac
ter of Berenice (which, however, we will endeavor to clear
fi'om the misrepresentations of historians). The fact, that
the vow was taken by a widow in Israel, and observed in
Jerusalem with all the attendant ceremonies enjoined by the
priests, is enough in itself to prove that such vows were custom
ary, and woman, as well as man, had the power to make and to
fulfil them.

PERIOD VI. BERENICE. 263

Nor in the thirty days' sacrifice, and going barefoot, which
appears to have been the case with Berenice, can we discover
what Whiston, in his note to this chapter of Josephus, supposes
—the extreme rigor of Pharisaic ordinances. The permission
to make vows, and the care lest females should be carried away
by ill-regulated enthusiasm, is all that was ordained in the law
of Moses — the manner of performing that vow, and the service
or penance which its performance included, was left to the will
of the subject, or, at his or her discretion, to the guidance of the
priest. It was for this very reason, that the making and man
ner of fulfilling vows were to be entirely voluntary, that woman
was compelled to have the sanction of father or husband.
Such a vow, for instance, as Berenice's, would have been
incompatible with the duty of a wife or daughter, and there
fore probably not have received the necessary sanction of man,
though the enthusiasm of the woman might have urged her to
make it. Had the manner of performing vows been laid down
by our great lawgiver, there would have been no need for him
to have burdened woman's observance of them with a proviso,
for the service or penance would have been ordained according
to her power of obedience : but this would have interfered too
closely with domestic and social freedom ; and she was, there
fore, permitted to make vows of service or penance, according to
her own inclination, subservient only to the superior wisdom and
calmer reasoning of her husband or father.

Berenice, at the time of her vow, was six-and-thirty years of
age, a widow, and perfectly independent, both of will and action.
She had neither father nor husband to interfere with her
intentions — was of sufficient age to know well what she was
about — of sufficient mental qualifications, and having been edu
cated in Rome, without any of the exclusiveness of her own
people, of sufficient freedom of thought in religious matters, not
blindly to follow the instructions of priests, if they interfered
with her own ideas ; and, therefore, it is more than probable
that the sacrifices and going barefoot were no orders of the
priest, but Berenice's own voluntary adoption, the manner in
which she chose to perform her " singular vow," and with which
*he priests interfered not, save in their sacred functions, to aid
,er in its performance. The riches of Berenice are more than
once alluded to ; and, therefore, the thirty days' sacrifice,
although expensive, was quite within her power ; and the going
23

264 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

barefoot, though revolting to our ideas of the religion of Moses,
which ordained loving obedience, not personal penance, was then
probably considered a mark of humility, and as revealing?
to the nation, that rank and station were not to interfere with
the personal devotion to the Eternal, comprised in the making
and observance of singular vows.

So much for Berenice's vow, as regards us nationally. As if.
regards her individually, it proves that, even while giving them
what, in those times, was considered the advantages of a Roman
education, Herod Agrippa must have taught them the religion
of the Hebrews — made it a point with them — else we should
never hear of Berenice deeming this singular vow was needed,
or that it was absolutely necessary for Polemo, king of Pontus,
to become a Jew before she married him. Nor, had she been
educated in Roman principles only, would she have felt and
acted as she did for her helpless people, during her residence in
Jerusalem. Floras was then procurator of Judea, and govern
ing with a mereilessness and ferocity, that at length caused
the already full cup of Jewish forbearance and Jewish misery to
run over. Imprisonments, scourgings, crucifixions, and mas
sacres by wholesale, ceased not during the whole period of
his authority. In one day 3,600 men, women, and children,
fell unresisting victims : and neither rank, nor worth, nor even
Roman citizenship — for some of the distinguished Jews had
obtained equestrian rank — were spared ; the highest suffering
with the meanest, the worthy with the base.

Repeatedly had Berenice sent messengers— the most dis
tinguished of her household — to intercede with Floras for
her miserable countrymen ; but, high as was her rank, influen
tial as she was with his Roman masters, the monster heeded
her not. Not even when, in her penitential attire, she herself
stood before his tribunal, and sought by her own pleadings
to check the torrent of his cruelty. Her hapless countrymen
were hewn down before her very eyes ; old age and helpless
infancy, — the delicate female, — all perished ; and she herself
was in such imminent danger from the infuriate soldiery,
as to be compelled to fly to the palace and collect her
guards around, to shield herself from insult, as well as death,
i et she made no effort to quit Jerusalem, which she could have
done with the greatest ease. Rather than fail in the perform
ance of her vow, she shared the dangers of her countrymen ,

PERIOD VI. BERENICE. 265

living iii daily dread of her own death, and in daily sight
of misery and murder. Nor was she merely a passive witness
she wrote the most touching accounts of the cruelty and rapa
city of Florus, to his superior officer, Cestius Gallus, entreating
his interference in behalf of her oppressed people ; and when
Agrippa 'returned, joined with him in every effort to reconcile
the Jews and Romans, and so obtain for the former security and
peace. She sat beside her brother during his memorable
address, by her tears and silent eloquence betraying that
her heart also was in his words ; and even when, indignant
at their ungrateful conduct to himself, Agrippa left the misera
ble city to itself, and returned to his own kingdom of Chalcis,*
Berenice still seems to have lingered. Nor did she leave
the country until her vow was fully performed, and Jerusalem in
too fearful a state to admit of any hope of achieving or adminis
tering good.

Surely these are characteristics of an energetic, yet gentle,
feeling woman. We can trace nothing, in this lowly adherence
to a penitential vow and devotion to the interests of a miserable
people, resembling the gay life and pleasure-loving propensities
of a professed and alluring beauty. Josephus, indeed, accuses
her of the unamiable qualities of annoying and ill-treating
her youngest sister, Drusilla, on account of her extraordinary
beauty: but that this charge must have been made without
either foundation or reflection on the part of the historian,
is very clear from his own recital. The beauty and influence of
Berenice had been long known and widely acknowledged. She
had neither occasion, nor probably inclination, to envy her sister
the gifts she herself possessed. But the very manner in which
Josephus writes the charge, shows its fallacy. Drusilla was
already married to Aziz, king of Amesa, who had consented to
embrace the Jewish religion to obtain her. When Felix
was procurator of Judea, he saw Drusilla, and fell madly
in love with her. Through the means of a Cypriot Jew,
he persuaded her to forsake her husband Aziz, and marry him.
" Accordingly, she acted ill ; and because she was desirous
to avoid her sister Berenice's envy — for she was very ill-treated
by her on account of her beauty — was prevailed upon to

* After the death of his brother-in-law, and also uncle, Herod <rt
Chalcis, the kingdom of Chalcis was given to Agrippa.

266 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

transgress the laws of her country, and marry Felix." Now it
appears to me that Berenice's envy (even granted she had
to encounter it) had nothing whatever to do with this decision
The representations of the Cypriot, the seductive persuasions of
Felix, and her own inclinations, were the sole incentives ;
for she certainly was not a whit more protected from her sister's
envy as the wife of Felix, than she had been as the wife of
Aziz : nay, scarcely as much ; for, when united to Felix,
she was continually liable to be thrown in Berenice's way, both
in Jerusalem and Rome ; and this could not have been the case
when residing in her first husband's kingdom of Emesa. This
charge, then, against Berenice has no foundation in reason ; but
"nost probably originated in Josephus's great wish to conciliate
the Romans, even while he appeared to be writing an impartial
history of his own country. Had he been straightforward,
we should have found some condemnation of Drusilla for marry
ing a heathen, and forsaking, without any just cause, her former
husband. But as the heathen was a Roman, he passes over the
transgression very lightly ; and, instead of blaming Drusilla for
conduct which was undoubtedly evil, absolves her at the
expense of her sister, who had probably no more to do with
it than he had himself. And this is the justice of historians !
Surely we should examine well, ere we permit the youthful
mind to embrace their views as infallible ; and rather encourage
them to reflect, and have an opinion of their own, instead
of blindly swallowing the food which historians provide.

That Berenice should sometimes be regarded as the sister, and
sometimes as the wife of Agrippa, does not at all surprise us, for
some historians actually call her his wife.* What foundation
they have for this assertion, however, we should be glad to
know. Certainly, Josephus must be to them an unknown
authority ; for he shows her parentage and connexions some
what too clearly for this idea to originate with him. The mis
take of the moderns, and the false scandalous reports of the
ancients, may however arise from the same causes. We have
already shown the close tie uniting Jewish brothers and sistera
of nearly the same age; that Agrippa and Berenice were*
always associated in the thoughts, and even the will of
their father. As Herod's wife, and queen of Chalci^ Berenice

* Jahn's Hebrew Commonwealth.

PERIOD VI. BERENICE. 267

was more continually in Jerusalem, and learning lessons of
government rather from her father than her brother, who
was then at Rome. Herod, though king of Chalcis, almost con
stantly resided in Jerusalem; and during the minority of
the young Agrippa, obtained the sovereignty over the Temple,
and the privilege of nominating the high priest. Berenice was,
therefore, actually queen over the Jews, at that time, as well as
of Chalcis ; and the former people were accustomed to regard
and feel towards her, as with her husband, the representative of
royalty.

When Herod died, his kingdom of Chalcis, over which
Berenice was still queen, was given to Agrippa, and the brother
and sister were, in consequence, again thrown so closely together,
that as Agrippa had no wife, they were always alluded to, and
spoken of as king and queen. As the daughter, sister, and
widow of kings, accustomed, too, to share in the government,
and influence the people, she was always spoken of as Queen
Berenice, and queen of Chalcis, over which country Agrippa
was also king. And mere casual readers are therefore likely to
consider her as the wife of the king, not knowing how, as his
sister, she could have had any right to the title. Acting in
concert with Agrippa, as their early education had accustomed
them to do, we see her, as in the affair of Florus and Agrippa's
address to the people, occupying that position which, not gene
rally devolving on the sisters of royalty, confirms the supposition
of a nearer connexion. But the supposition falls to the ground
before the simple facts we have brought forward. Berenice
was, in fact, a more independent sovereign of Judea, or rather
of a remnant of the Jewish people, than her brother ; for him
the Romans feared, lest by placing regal power in his hands,
their own power over Judea would be diminished. Berenice as
a woman, and the wife of a king of Chalcis, was to them a mere
cypher with regard to the state, however admired as a beautiful
woman in Rome; but the interest she really did take in the
aflairs of the people, we perceive by her conduct during the
administration of Florus.

We have read and reflected on the subject deeply; but
though we see much which might be perverted into the rumor
to which we have alluded, a consideration of facts proves its
ntter want of solid foundation. Our authorities are, however,
open to all readers, and they are at liberty to adopt their own

268 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

opinions. We would only entreat them to reflect on the facti
here brought forward under their view, as likely to assist them
in their decision — to accustom themselves to reason from analogy,
as well as to exercise understanding, which is too often thought
sufficient in itself for the comprehension of history. We are
too far removed from the time in which Berenice lived, to pro
nounce judgment decidedly for or against her ; but when not a
single instance is brought forward to make manifest impropriety
of conduct, and all that is clearly related of her proves a reli
gious, national, and feeling character — when her defamers are
Roman satirists, and Roman historians, for whose dislike it was
enough that she was a Jewess — when the pages of her own
historian are but too often tarnished with crooked views, partial
representation, and Roman feelings, why should we not be
permitted to judge charitably as well as harshly ? to doubt as well
as believe ? Her character is, indeed, not written with sufficient
clearness for us to draw thence a lesson ; but our history of the
women of Israel would scarcely have been complete had we
omitted her, more especially as her history practically illustrates
a law of our state, and demonstrates convincingly that even in
that period of spiritual and moral darkness, not a statute existed
which could contradict the written law of Moses, by a refusal to
women of those spiritual privileges, and that solemn responsibility,
therein so forcibly inculcated.

CHAPTER XI.

BENERAL HISTORY, AND CONCLUSIONS THENCK
ELI CITED .

IN the fearful epochs of misery and war which followed, we
find no further mention of woman individually ; but, as an
important evidence of the care which the Jewish religion took
of females, we find Josephus, in his character of general (which
he fulfilled infinitely better than that of historian), laboring with

PERIOD VI. GENERAL REMARKS. 269

zeal and earnestness to protect the females from insult or out
rao-e. In lawless nations, in times of such terrible evil, thu
would not have been thought of; whereas with the Hebrew
patriot, surrounded as he was with many heavy cares and
imminent dangers, it was the first consideration, and was nevei
lost sight of throughout the whole of his career.

In glancing back over the period, which has detained us much
longer than we anticipated, from the return from Babylon to
the^war, we cannot find a single evidence of the veracity or
foundation of the charge of Jewish female degradation, nor in fact
the workings of a single statute contradictory to the beautiful spirit
of the law of Moses. All we have read, every female diameter
brought forward, marks the superior social elevation and indi
vidual intellect of the Hebrew females, to the women of any of
the surrounding nations. Nay, we see them occupying positions
as wives and sisters — of kings, higher and far more influential
than they ever did, or do, in any Gentile land. Instead of
being sunk into mere nonentities, as, were they refused all spirit
ual privileges and temporal freedom, they must have been, we
behold their influence, either for good or bad, as great and far-
spreading as female influence ever was in any other either ancient
or modern land. We cannot discern a trace of that social or
domestic abasement which, had any either divine or human
statute existed, must have been visible at a time when human
nature was sunk to the lowest ebb. It is no longer Bible-times
or inspired characters which we are considering. The nation
was a holy nation no longer, having departed through her
iniquities from the Lord. He had left her children to their own
hearts ; but, in the midst of evil, still the law and its beautiful
ordinances lived and breathed in many noble hearts, and its
atmosphere was still inhaled by the people though its reviving
sunlight had departed. Not in such a period could woman
, have taken her natural position, if any law had once existed to
her abasement ; but she simply retained that which she had
always possessed, and this at the advent of Christianity.

Nor can we discern the faintest evidence of polygamy at this
period. If we glance back to the return from Babylon, we
must remark that every king and priest and prince is recorded
as possessing but one wife. Simon, John Hyrcanus, Aris-
tobulus I., Alexander Jannseus — both his sons, Aristobulus and
Hyrcanus — Alexander, the father of Mariamne, her own twc

£70 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

sons, and the other descendants of Herod, the wives of all of
whom are mentioned, confirm both the legality and the custom
of but one wife, at the very era when our opponents declare the
religion of Jesus was absolutely needed to reform the abuses in
the marriage state. " Herod had ten wives," there will b«
many to exclaim, and bring history forward as their authority.
With all due deference to them, we assert, aye, and will prove,
that Herod had but three legal wives, and that just in the same
way as adversaries of Christianity might, if they chose, declare
that Charles II. had ten or twenty wives, and so believe Chris
tianity permitted polygamy ; so with an equal share of justice
may the opponents of Judaism bring forward Herod as an
evidence of the degradation of the Jewish religion and its
sanction of polygamy. The personal character of Herod, as
well as his magnificence, indeed much more strongly resembled
the character of Henry VIII. : the similarity, in fact, between
them on many points being so curious, that it might make an
interesting historical parallel, though, in the violence of passion
and power of remorse, Herod had the advantage ; but we men
tion Charles II., simply to state, that he might just as well be
looked upon as the representative of Christianity as Herod of
Judaism.

But now to prove that only three of his wives can be consi
dered as legally wedded. Before he married Mariamne, or
even made overtures for her hand, Herod divorced his first wife
Doris, though she had already given him a son, and he had
nothing to allege against her, but his own desire to forward his
ambition, by a union with the Asmonaean line. Now if poly
gamy were the law and the custom of the land, why need he
have taken the trouble of divorcing Doris ? Mariamne would
equally have been his legal wife, her children equally his heirs ;
and though Doris might be the less beloved, the law provided
for her, even under such an emergency. But, notwithstanding
all this, he divorced her before he married Mariamne ; and
surely this alone would prove, that man had already, in some
degree, made the advance contemplated, when the law interfered
not with his private habits, and custom had already rendered
the remission needless, although the laws for the offspring of
divorced wives still rendered their births legal, and gave them
their share of the inheritance. It is, in fact, from this that
Herod in his own person appears to have practised polygamy ;

TERIOD VI. GENERAL REMARKS. 27l

but that only one wife had become the custom of the country in
further proved by the historian, who mentions but one other
public union. Two years after the execution of the Asmonaean
princess, during which time he was too much tormented by
mental remorse and physical disease, to think of taking another
wife, Herod married another Mariamne, the daughter of Simon,
an obscure individual, but of princely descent, and she enjoyed
that dignity, such as it was, for twenty years, till, supposing her
to be an accomplice in the conspiracy of Antipater against him
self, he divorced her in the last year of his life and reign.
Now of this second Mariamne, Josephus makes particular men
tion in his Antiquities (book xv. ch. 9, sect. 3), that to enable
him to make her his wife, he elevated the rank of her father,
thinking if he did not legally wed her, he would be stigmatized
with cruelty and tyranny, qualities the semblance of which he
wished to avoid.

There is no mention of his thus wedding any of his other (so
called) wives ; and, therefore, that he had them, and that their
children were all considered legitimate, is not any proof of poly
gamy being then a national custom : for even granting Herod
had publicly married the whole nine, it would not have weighed
a single grain against the fact, that every other king, priest, or
prince, mentioned since the return from Babylon, had but one.
He was one who, in every single act, set law, especially the
Jewish law, at defiance. According to Gibbon, the wise and <<r
good emperor Charlemagne had also nine wives, but we do not
therefore accuse Christians of favoring that doctrine ; then why
should we lay Herod's licentiousness, granting he proved it,
-> which history denies rather than confirms, to th^ score of the
holy religion which, though he professed, he certainly never
practised ?

In a careful and critical survey of the manners and customs
of the Jews, between the return from Babylon and their final
dispersion, we find nothing whatever differing from the precepts '
of the early Christians. The apostles were themselves Jews,
who wrote for the Gentiles, and condensed and simplified for
them, the sublime morality of the Mosaic code. They do not
preach a single precept, they do not proclaim a single truth
they do not give a single rule for social and domestic guidance,
vhich we Hebrews had not known and practised ages before
they wrote — and wrote, in fact, from their own experience of \

V

I

272 THE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

Jewish manners and customs. The reverend collector of the
" Old Paths" could have known very little of Jewish history, or
wilfully misinterpreted that which he did know, to make the
extraordinary assertion that the introduction of monogamy
belongs to Christianity alone. With very few exceptions, the
actors of the New Testament are all Jews ; and the domestic
life there recorded of course reflects the Jewish life of those

_ ^ days : and had polygamy then existed, would it not have been
one of the most important points for the Apostles of the new
creed to exalt the new moral law above the old ? But we do
not find this ; — exactly in accordance (in this instance) with the
Old Testament, the New Testament nowhere ordains monogamy
and prohibits polygamy. Impartial men allow this, and Dr.
Channing, who, though no Protestant, must surely be consi
dered a Christian, writes concerning Milton's opinion of poly
gamy, " Finding no prohibition of polygamy in the New
Testament, he believed that not only holy men would be
traduced, but Scripture dishonored by pronouncing it morally
evil :" and again, " We believe it to be an undisputed fact, that
although Christianity was first preached in Asia, which had
been from the earliest ages the seat of polygamy, the Apostles
never denounced it as a crime, and never required their consorts

v to put away all wives but one."* Surely this is an important
confirmation of our assertion, that we did not require the preach
ing of the Apostles to teach us that refinement and elevation of
the social system which, with the advancement of humanity,
time would procure us, and which was in fact obtained at the
very era in which we are told it was first offered us, by the
adoption of a superior moral code.

The text to which Christians appeal as the prohibition of
> P°tygamy» is one fr°m which a very different conclusion might
be drawn — " Whoso shall put away his wife (except for adul
tery) and shall marry another, committeth adultery, and whoso
marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." Surely
this can only mean, that a man is forbidden unlawfully to put away
one wife, and marry another in her stead, not to keep the first,
and add another to his household ; and the spirit of this precept
we have already had in the Mosaic law ; but, even granting that
it does prohibit polygamy, we, too, have a prohibition of equal,

* Channing's \\ ,/rks (People's Edition), vo'.. i. page 26

PERIOD VI. GENERAL REMARKS. 273

if not superior force, and written much about the same time by
the venerable Rabbi Ami : " I say, that any man who marries a
second wife, must fully have repudiated his first ;"* a precept <
on which Herod appears to have originally acted, by his divorc
ing Doris before he married Mariamne. That he took Doris
back again after the first Mariamne's death, proves nothing.
The Jewish law forbade such an act ; but we have seen that he
cared nothing for the laws ; but that Mariamne was his sole wife
while she lived is sufficient for our purpose.

There may, perhaps, be some who think these remarks irrele
vant to our subject; but if they aid, as they must do, our asser
tion, that the Jewish religion is enough for her female votaries,
that we need no other to elevate and secure our natural position,

— ^ we earnestly trust that they will not be dismissed unread. We~l
mean no disrespect to other creeds : we shrink from following
the example of some, who endeavor to exalt their own faith by
debasing and throwing contempt upon another. We would only
prove, that the imperfection (if the non-prohibiting polygamy be
such) of our moral code exists equally in the other ; and that it

~^ is the gradual but sure advancement of the human species,
which is the refiner and elevator of domestic and social life —
not solely the ordinances of any particular laws. The first idea
of polygamy being allowed, supposes a degraded position for
women ; but we have seen, that even at the period of its prac
tice in Judaism, women were not degraded, for the law provided
against its abuse : and even then, with very few exceptions, the
chosen servants of the Eternal proved, in their own persons, the
> advance beyond their age in the practice of monogamy.

The captivity in Babylon had been an era in Jewish history.
The partial return to Jerusalem, and dispersion over other lands,
had occasioned very many changes. Man, even in the midst of
apparently increasing evil and darkening morality, had yet, in
actual fact, made a stride in advance, and much which had pol
luted the nation before, in the worshipping and sacrificing to
idols, the fearful abuse of the gracious non-interference with
Eastern customs and long endeared habits, and other crimes
coeval with man's least refined state of existence— all had given

* Yebamoth, fol. 65, col. a. For this and many of the preceding
-smarks on polygamy and the Christian and Jewish discussions on the
point, I am indebted to the kind suggestions and valuable information of
Mr. Theodores, of Manchester.

274 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

way and been trampled on in the terrible revolution which,
through the Babylonish power, had overwhelmed the land.
Sins of equal magnitude, and demanding yet more fearful retri
bution, from the neglect and heedlessness of former chastisement,
indeed, desecrated Judea ; but, in the very different nature of "~|
the evil, the very sins themselves, we see, as it were, the advance- '
ment in human powers. The good in human nature will not
make advance alone. Good and evil passions mutually sway the
heart of man ; and, according as the one or other gains the
ascendency, so will be the increased good or increased evil in
appearance of the world. But having an equally increased
power of good, the evil is only visibly evil ; the under-current is
still working, though invisibly, far more powerfully and benefi
cially, than in those periods when the capabilities of good and
of evil were less than they are now. The conflicting powers
could not produce the same end ; but as the Divinity in the
good advances, the evil will, in the end, be both visibly and
invisibly subdued ; and man, through the grace of God, attain
that perfection for which he was originally framed. ^

We see the prophecy of this in the sublime fact, that there is
never evil without its being the parent of good. No national
revolution ever yet took place without being followed by a
rapid stride in human nature, and as strikingly visible as far-
spreading good : yet during the continuance of those revolutions,
what can we trace or feel, but the supremacy of evil, in the war,
famine, misery in a thousand shapes, which devastate mankind 2
Still good is working, and we know and see it when the darken
ed torrent has rolled back, and the clear crystal waters, reflecting
the blue azure of the eternal heavens, are seen beneath.

Thus good sprang for Israel from the captivity of Babylon,
working even in the midst of the crime and sin in which its
visible form was but too soon swallowed up. The minds of
men had advanced ; but left to their own hardened hearts to
obey or disobey the laws of their God, and so prove themselves
worthy of the mercies proffered if they obeyed, they chose the~
evil, and so by their increased capabilities for its accomplishment,
hurled down the most awful chastisement on their own heads,
and on their holy land, sweeping in one fearful vortex the inno
cent and the guilty, the pious and the blasphemer, the obedient
and the disobedient : for in this world no distinction might be <
made. The King of heaven waited till they appeared before

PERIOD VI. — GENERAL REMARKS. 275

His throne to pronounce sentence according to their hearts yet
more than according to their deeds.

But humanity itself had not gone back, though all on earth
seemed dark and terrible. Good worked even there. The
Divine part of our mingled nature was visible in those instances
of patriotism, martyrdom, earnestness, and spirituality, which
our history records of men and women, old age and youth, even
in the blackest tempest of the war, and surrounded as tiiey
were with men, who, given up to their own passions and incli
nations, so succumbed to the evil as to appear incarnate fiends.
And good sprang from this ; aye, not only from the evil of the
war, but from the untold-of, incalculable, indescribable ^ wretch
edness of dispersion and persecution. It brought, nay, it is still
bringing Israel once more, in loving faith and unquestioning
obedience, to his God, and hastening on that day, when the
evil shall be entirely subdued, and the good reign triumphant.

With these reflections we will conclude the Sixth Period of
our history, leaving to the Seventh a glance over our dispersion,
and its effect on the present condition of our nation, male and
female. Brought down, as the history of the women of Israel
now is, to nearly seventy years after the advance of Christi-^
anity, the proofs of our non-abasement and degradation becom<T~~7
yet more important ; for there are many to assert, that in the
Bible-times the Hebrew females shared the holy privileges of
the males, but that it was the falling-off from this spiritual
Judaism, the mingling human with Divine authority, which so
degraded and blinded the Hebrews after the Babylonish cap
tivity, as absolutely to demand for our salvation the belief in the
atonement of Jesus, and adoption of the new creed v-hich his ,
apostles preached.

We trust that we have convincingly proved to our own
nation, and from our own history, that this was not the case-
that no human additions to the pure law had, between the first
and second captivity, lowered the position, or interfered with the
spiritual privileges of the Women of Israel. The conversion
and earnest zeal of Helena of Adiabene would be in itself
sufficient to controvert this charge; and we have, in addi
tion, alike the story of the martyr-mother — the independent
sovereignty of Alexandra, wife of Alexander Jannseus — the
influence of Mariamne, as sole representative of the Asmonaeans
*— and of Salome, in the pursuit of her fiend-liko machinations

276 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

— of Berenice, in the performance of her singular vow, and he?
rank and power as the sister and widow of kings, to convince us
still more unanswerably, that the woman of Israel enjoyed a
temporal power, and privileges peculiarly her own ; and was
debarred in not a single instance, of the spiritual privileges and
solemn responsibilities which had been bestowed on her by the
law of God, and which the manners and customs of her country
at the advent of Christianity undeniably confirmed. This, then,
is enough for us. There is no trace before the dispersion of
that mingling of human with Divine ordinances with which we
are charged ; and therefore we cannot allow, that for us the
moral preaching of the Christian apostles was needed. If such,
indeed, took place after the dispersion, it was from the care of
holy men to keep pure and holy the jewel of their faith, which
ivas threatened to be buried, alas ! beneath the bloody ashes of
constant persecution ; and how might we accept as saving, puri
fying, and reforming, the creed of those very men, whose cruel
oppression occasioned the very evil from which they bid us
him. No ! even in the midst of anarchy, misery, and blood,
the religion of God shone forth DIVINE. It was sufficient for us
then ; and oh ! doubly dearer, holier, more precious is it to us
•ou !

SEVENTH PERIOD

CHAPTER I.

THE WAR. ITS HORRORS. ORIGIN AND KKD

FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. R E A L C A U S K

OF JEWISH CHASTISEMENT. DISPERSION.

THOUGHTS ON THE TALMUD.

IT is with emotions of actual relief and gladness that we
Veave to other works the details of that awful war, during the
continuance of which 1,356,460 of our hapless countrymen
perished, and 101,700 graced as prisoners the triumph of the
Roman emperor and his son ; and this calculation relates only
to the period of the destruction of Jerusalem : the thousands
and thousands of men, women, and children, who fell victims to
after massacres, are not included.

As a History of the Women of Israel, we need not linger on
details which our own historian, Josephus, and yet more pow
erfully, ii. all the eloquence of modern writing, Milman has
brought so vividly before us, save to give one shuddering glance
on what must have been the anguish, the tortures, of the female
children of the Lord at that awful period. Every social tie —
mother, daughter, sister, wife — must every hour have been sub
ject to the agony of such bereavement as we can but faintly
image now. We see, by both Isaiah and Ezekiel, that the sins
of the women had added to the weight of national iniquity ;
but still all were not sinful, all were not rebellious. Countless
thousands of those that fell were true to their God and His
law. The service of the Temple, the daily offerings, were con
tinued in the very midst of the most horrible internal dissen
sions and outward siege ; and not only men armed for battle,
but the aged and the feeble, the loveliest and the most unpro
tected female, the stripling youth and the tender child, sought

2*78 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the temple-courts to worship, and often by the very altar found
their deaths. What, in this dark epoch, would have supported
the Hebrew female, and given her strength to witness misery,
suffer torture, and then die ? what but an assurance of that
- immortality, wherein the distinction between the righteous and
the wicked should be discerned, and all of this world's agony
be swallowed up in an eternity of bliss ?

In shrinking from the pages of horror which relate the Jew
ish war, we sometimes forget to bring forward in its deserved
light the noble and exalted patriotism fi om \vxaich tb 3 awful
struggle sprang. In our last period, we have endeavored to
give some idea of the enslaving and savage nature of the
Roman government over the provinces of Judea. A reference
to the historians of the period will make it clearer still. From
Herod, falsely called the Great, originated, as we have seen, the
Roman subjection of Judea, and the denationalizing of the
Jewish people. But all of nationality, all of patriotism, had
not merged into the slavish subjection which the persecuting
cruelty of the Roman governors seemed determined to enforce.
In the very face of crushing tyranny and inward depression, the
Hebrew people rose as one man to throw off the yoke of Rome
— Rome, the mistress of the world, Empress of a thousand
cities, of a hundred provinces, each one larger and more mighty
than the unprotected land whose daring sons held forth the
banner of rebellion, and dared to strike for freedom ! It was
not Rome who commenced the struggle. She would have
laughed to scorn the very idea that Judea could lead armies to
subject her, when her officers and troops already held the land.
/No — it was the Jews themselves. And who after this shall
accuse us of tacit submission, of wanting in courage, patriotism,
spirit, all that makes the warrior ? Had we succeeded, we too
should have been held up as examples of man in his noblest
nature, even as the Swiss under Tell, the Scotch under Wallace
and Bruce, and the Americans of a later day ; for, when com
pared with the Hebrews' struggles for liberty and soil, how faint
and feeble were the efforts of these modern lands ! But the
exalted origin of the Jewish war is lost in its awful close. We
I could not succeed ; for it was the Lord who fought against us
| through the Roman swords, in just chastisement for national
LJniquity, and in fulfilment of His prophecy by Moses. Still let
not our sons forget that their ancestors alone dared brave tin.4

PERIOD YII. THE WAR. 2*29

mighty force of imperial Rome — their ancestors alone so fought
for" freedom that mightier armies than were needed for the
reduction of any other province were summoned against them.
Aye, and that, had not the wrath of the Eternal worked against
them, in the division of themselves, and in the awful fulfilment
of the threatem'ngs which they had disregarded, Judea would
have been unconquered still.

One important fact it is necessary to notice "here. Our young
sisters, no doubt, have often read and heard (for it is impossible
to peruse Gentile historians of the time without such impres
sions), that the awful occurrences of the war, the destruction of
our glorious Temple, and banishment from our Holy Land, all
were occasioned, not by our departure from the law of God,
and manifold national transgressions, but from our obstinate
rejection of Jesus, when he came for our salvation. Now, with
out an intimate knowledge of our history during the continu
ance of the Second Temple, this might be a startling argument.
We see that we are dispersed ; we read of all the miseries and
massacres which have befallen us ; of the omens and prodigies
that preceded the destruction of the Temple. We are told by
eager Gentile acquaintance, or read in their books, that so Jesus
prophesied, and that he wept when he looked on Jerusalem, fore
seeing all the calamities about to ensue because the people rejected
him ; and unless we know another cause for all these things,
how are we to answer ?

And yet how easy is the true reply ! A very cursory glance
over our history, from the return from the Babylonish Captivity,
even if we go no further than the death of Herod, will bring
glaringly before us the awful sins for which we are thus
punished. Even in the brief sketch which we have given at the
commencement of our Sixth Period, we surely must trace the
national departure from the pure law of Moses, the assimilation
with other nations, the entire forgetfulness that we were to be a
" nation of priests, holy unto the Lord" — the awful deeds of
parricide and massacre devastating the houses of those very
princes chosen as the Lord's anointed priests : and even had
we but the reign of Herod, we read a sufficiency of sin to hurl
down on us the threatened chastisement of the Eternal. The
period between the first and second Captivity was granted us
- as a period of trial, whether or not we would return with our
whole hearts unto the Lord. The twenty-eighth chapter of Deu

280 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

teronc/my, witli its sublime and startling prophecy, was ours then
even as it is now. We had already felt the wrath of the Lord :
and the power to return to Him and to His law, or to reject
them, H s mercy had planted in our hearts. Tf man had no
power of himself to keep the law of God, as the Gentiles teach,
then, indeed, would the law have been instituted in mockery,
not in love, to destroy not to save ; and there could have been
no need for the sublime prophecy of Moses. This is not thb
work to dilate on the twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, as
_ inclination might prompt. We can only beseech our readers
. to turn to it themselves — to observe the blessings promised for
obedience — the curses threatened on the disobedient — to com
pare the history of Israel during the continuance of the Tem
ple, with the first fourteen verses of the chapter, and reflect
if such blessings could be ours ; and then from the fifteenth
to the end of the chapter : and do we need more to instruct
us in the nature of our sins — and the wherefore they were
punished ?

" But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the
voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His command
ments and His statutes, which I command thee this day, that
all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee." This
"^single verse is all-sufficient to overturn every Gentile argument.
The prophecy which it precedes is so exact a description of all
that took place in Jerusalem, before its siege by the Romans,
during the siege, and afterwards, in the various lands where we
were scattered, that it would seem as if it must have been writ
ten by an eye-witness, or after those events took place — not by
an historian, living hundreds and thousands of years before.
^Tthis single chapter is sufficient to prove the truth of the Bible,
Judaism, and God. The description of the siege may in a slight
degree be applicable either to the first or second destruction of
the Temple ; but, as a whole, it refers only and solely to the
destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, and the final dispersion of the
Jews.

Let not, then, the impressions derived from Gentile historians,
so confine the youthful Hebrew mind, as to conceal for a single
instant the real reason for our past miseries and present disper
sion. We were, we are, chastised, not for rejecting Jesus, but
for long, long years of disobedience to our law. We are chas
tised for those national and individual crimes and sins, recorded

PERIOD VII. THE WAR. 281

m our history during the continuance of our Second Temple —
not for refusing belief in Jesus. If omens and prodigies did
precede the destruction of the Temple, might not Nature have
been equally moved with horror for the fate threatening the
Jewish people for their manifold sins, as for a single one ? Jesus
wept when he thought on the calamities of Jerusalem ; but this
only proves, that, like every other Jew, he was well acquainted
with the prophecy of Moses, and, in the supremacy of national
sin, beheld its near fulfilment — wholly and entirely distinct frona/ %
their treatment of himself.

Surely, then, the Gentile arguments, as to the cause of our
dispersion, must fall harmless to the ground, a knowledge of
our own history being all that is required to supply us with ^,
defence.*

The war itself lasted but five years ; but the miseries and
massacres of the Jews commenced almost from the death of
Herod, and continued, with little cessation, long after Jerusalem
was destroyed. In every Roman province where they took
refuge, they were almost universally massacred, either from some
fancied insult, or revolt among themselves, or from the determi
nation of the Romans to sweep them from the earth. The
Greeks joined in this universal persecution — their only point of
cordial union with the Romans seeming, in fact, to be their
detestation of and cruelty towards the exiles of the Lord. The reign
of Adrian threatened them with almost as complete an extermina
tion as th sir expulsion from their land. Yet still they lived on,
endowed, it seemed, with an undying vitality, which neither
cruelty, nor suffering, nor death in its most awful shape, could
extinguish. Nor was it the race only, which was preserved, but

» Our opponents will, no doubt, urge, that it was to redeem us from
those very sins, dilated on above, that Jesus came ; and had we accepted
him, our punishment, in the destruction of our beautiful city, and banish
ment from our Holy Land, would have been averted. This sounds well : ,
j~But as no such condition whatever was annexed, as a saving clause, to the A
« prophetic threatenings of Moses, in chapter twenty-eight of Deuteronomy,
jve can neither accept nor allow it. Had the Eternal ordained and requir
ed this acceptance of Jesus, He would have inspired Moses to insert, at
the end of verse fifteen, chapter twenty-eight, " But it shall come to pass,
if thou wilt not hearken, &c — nor accept the salvation that 1 offer through
5> the atonement of the Saviour whom I will send." But as there are no
•uch conditions, the cause of all that has befallen us originates in the
awful disobedience to the " voice of the Lord our God," and disobedience
to the law which fie gave through Moses.

282 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the religion. Wherever they were, in whatever circumstances,
either of prosperity or adversity, oppression or partial freedom,
still they were Jews — more earnest, more hearty, more resolute
followers of their law, than they had been when outward cir
cumstances might have permitted its strictest observances.

It was not until the reign of Antoninus Pius, that the miseries
of the Hebrews subsided into a partial calm, and privileges were
granted them throughout Italy and the various provinces of
Rome, which enabled the patriarch of Tiberias to obtain such
freedom and power in the observance of his religion, as to be
recognised by the whole Jewish nation, wherever scattered, as
their supreme head and spiritual sovereign.

It was under his mild jurisdiction, that the Rabbins or learned
men crept from their hiding-places, and resumed the study of
the law. From them, at various times, emanated many of the
minor ordinances and learned explanations of the written word,
which were afterwards collected and compiled under the different
names of Gemara, Mishna, and, later, the Talmud. The syna
gogues may also be said to have arisen from this period.
Wherever there were ten Jews, there was a synagogue, with its
books of the written law, and teachers ; and its galleries for the
accommodation of the Hebrew females, that they too might
partake the spiritual instruction and privileges offered to their
brethren.

Over all the provinces of the great Empire, the Hebrew race
extended ; and from them penetrated all over Europe, and into
the far-off countries of China, Malabar, other parts of the Easi
Indies, the coast of Africa, and places equally remote, where
their very origin is plunged in mystery. In China, their syna
gogue we are told much more resembles the ancient Temple,
than any of those in Europe. In Malabar, there are both black
and white Jews, the former most probably either the descendants
of black slaves or converts. In Bokhara and Persia, particularly
in the cities of Ispahan and Shiraz, Rashan and Yezd — in
Mesopotamia, Assyria, Damascus, Arabia, Egypt, Cairo, the
oorders of Abyssinia, Morocco ; — in all these places the
Hebrews found resting ; precarious and uncertain indeed, but
there they still continue to exist. In all the different kingdoms
of Europe (except Norway, in which country we never remem
ber seeing t'hem mentioned), they have lived, flourished, been
persecuted and expelled, recalled and protected. In Spain alone,

PERIOD Vfl. — THE WAR. 283

the edict of expulsion never appears to have been recalled ; but,
as if in direct manifestation of the protecting arm of that gracious
Providence, who had ordained the eternal existence of His people,
the very year of their banishment from Spain, Christopher
Columbus discovered that new continent, which was to be to
them a home of more perfect freedom and peace than they had
enjoyed since their dispersion. In America, persecution never
assailed — expulsion never banished. In Spain, they had acquir
ed a greater degree of learning, influence, and power, than in
any other European nation ; and such they might equally obtain
in that land, which appeared to be called from the deep, at the
voice of the Creator, to provide them a home where neither
oppression nor eHen civil disabilities can check the same advance
of mind and species, to which in Spain, and in Spain alone, they
had attained. Surely, this consideration ought to weigh deeply
in the minds of our brethren across the Atlantic, and, inciting
them to rise superior to the worldly dreams and time-seeking
pursuits of the age, urge them to make manifest to the world
what freedom and equality will make the Jew.

It would be an interesting and curious study, to endeavor to
trace the first colonies of the Hebrews in all these varied
lands ; though, from the utter absence of all authentic docu- <-
ments, we fear the task, however interesting, would be impossi
ble. We seem only to know, that in every quarter of the globe
God has placed witnesses in simple fulfilment of His unalterable )6
word. In the North and in the South, in the East and in the
West, there we are, and there we shall be, until that glorious
day, when the same mighty word which sent us forth will recall
us to the land of our fathers — when, for our path, the moun
tains shall be laid low and the valleys exalted, and the tongue
of the Red Sea shall be dried up, and the crooked shall be
made straight, and the rough places plain, and in Jerusalem the
glorious Temple be upraised from the dust, as the visioned eye
of Ezekiel saw and prophesied, in the sublime description con-^
tained in the last eight chapters of his book.

We cannot doubt that these things WILL BE, when we ~|
behold, by our residence in every land, what HAS BEEN and
WHAT is, and remember, that the same word which prophesied I
the PAST, whose fulfilment we have seen, hath prophesied the
FUTURE, whose fulfilment we must equally behold, and believe ,
even while it be deferred.

284 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

The history of the Jews, as a body, however, enters not into
the plan of the present work ; nor shall we even dwell upon it
as long as we did in our previous Period. From the siege of
Jerusalem, our history is very much more generally known, than
during the period between the return from Babylon and the
final dispersion. We still trace the effects of the one in our
present condition, and in the frequent mention of us in modern
history, the other is but too often entirely forgotten, or only
thought upon as blended with the records of Syria, Greece, Rome,
and the final siege.

Our task rests with the Women of Israel ; and of them we
have unhappily so little mention, either as individuals or as a
body, in modern times, that we can add but little to our
previous pages. Yet that little, trifling as it may seem,
on a superficial consideration, is of real importance to the con
firmation of our asserted point, the perfect freedom and equality
of the Hebrew female.

We shall not find her wanting in any single point which con
stitutes the fit recipient and proraulgator of a persecuted creed,
or shrinking, as her physical weakness might portend, from
any suffering, even that most agonizing — the bereavement of
her children, by her own or their father's hand, could they thus
only be saved from the denial of her God. Could any
woman have done this, have looked on the pitiless murderers
of all she loved, and then by cruel tortures calmly shared
their fate : had she been deprived, as our opponents in their
ignorance declare, of the belief in, and hope of, the bliss and rest
of immortality ?

Before, however, we bring forward instances of female mar
tyrdom, thb/e is one subject which, though we approach it with
—reluctance, from the opposition and wilful misconception which
it is likely to produce, we desire to bring most strongly before
our readers. It is the supposition of many amongst the Gen-
tiles, and we fear amongst some few of ourselves, that it is the
Talmud which, promoting the spirit of the Mosaic law, author
izes, nay commands, the degradation and enslaving of the
^ Jewish female. In confirmation of this theory, there are many
zealous conversionists who bring forward, as translations from the
Talmud, detached verses and portions, which appear su strongly
to support their assertion, as to prevent all reply. Now it
»hould be well remembered, both by ourselves and our cppo-

J

PERIOD VII. THE TALMUD. 285 x

nents, that much which is called the Talmud, and supposed to
be coeval with its original venerable compilers, are the specula
tions, inquiries, and even ordinances of much later writers, —
whose opinions were no doubt often biassed (though uncon
sciously) by the habits and customs of their own darkened age.
Let us first consider the origin and real intent of these most
venerable and often falsely abused forms. Divine they are not. -^
There are, we think, comparatively but fuw now, who will place
them, in point of divinity and dignity, with the written oracles
of God ; for if they are, why do we not see the same honor
and reverence paid to them, as to the sacred lolls, whose
dwelling is the House of God, and whose appearance and eleva
tion in the sight of the assembled multitude, cause the congre
gation simultaneously to rise, in silent homage to their inspired
author ?

When expelled from their own land — banished into every
quarter of the globe — the temple service and worship, exactly
as Moses had ordained, was impossible.* The sacrifices were
compelled to cease ; for the fire from heaven consumed them no
longer as in the First Temple ; nor, as in the Second, were there
courts and altars for the sacrifices ; nor flocks and herds in pos
session of the Israelites to offer up. The multitudes, more
eager than ever, from their state of adversity and trial, to
return to the Lord their God, and once more obey that holy
law, which, when it was in their power to obey, they had totally
disregarded, beheld the opportunity so to do gone from them.
Morning and evening, sabbaths and holidays, they had been
accustomed t« offer sacrifice and prayer. In case of singular
vows, of thanksgiving, or penance, in every circumstance of life,
they had a high priest to whom to resort, a Temple where to
come, offerings ordained by Moses, and laws and statutes
entering into every man's household, and guiding not only his
spiritual and social but his domestic life. But these laws and
ordinances were for Israel when an independent state, subjects
of God alone, and in possession of lands and their produce —
flocks, herds — all of which were absolutely necessary for exact
obedience to the law. In their banishment, how could they be <r-
guided in exact accordance with the pure law of Moses ? At

* For these remarks on the Talmud, and supposition of its use and
B?tent, the author alone is answerable.

286 TH3 WOMFN 01 ISRAEL.

first perusal, they must have been almost appalled at the man;
ordinances which they could not observe ; yet, on a second study
•f^of the holy books of Moses, and comparing them with the pro
/-7 phets, they must have seen, that obedience, as far as lay in their
' power, in their several lands of exile, was imperatively demand
ed from them ; that their only hope of restoration and salva
tion was in a faithful adherence to the God and law of their
fathers, and a firm faith in His promised mercy, to strengthen
and purify man's feeble efforts, and render them acceptable tc
him.

i But how were they to obey? Eager and earnest m their
^repentance and desire to return to their God, now that the long-
threatened chastisement had fallen, they welcomed with rejoicing
the efforts of holy and good men to lay down a path of
| obedience which, even in their exile and in the midst of persecu
tion, they might tread. Hence arose those ordinances which are
accused of clogging with dead and soulless weight the pure and
spiritual Law of God ; but which, in those fearful eras of exile
and persecution, bound Jew to Jew, and with God's protecting
blessing, saved His religion from amalgamation with othei
nations, and all adoption of the Gentile creeds. But the holy
men who originally raised the protecting casket around the
beautiful jewel of their faith, never either preached or intended
that their ordinances were to be considered divine or perpetual
It was to preserve the purity, the spiritual purity, of their Law
unsullied, when circumstances must otherwise have crushed
it (we are writing humanly, not alluding to the Divine Guardian,
who would always have preserved us from annihilation), not
to take its place and be considered in the same unalterable
and changeless light with which we look on the law of God.
Circumstances might demand the modification, even the altera
tion, of some of these Rabbinical statutes ; and could their
wise and pious originators have been consulted on the subject,
they would have unhesitatingly adopted those measures most
likely to advance and aid spiritual improvement, even if to
do so demanded a modification of some of their previously insti
tuted statutes. We have but to glance over the life and writing*
[ of the great Maimonides to prove this assertion.

To the speculative theorists, students, and additional com
pilers of the middle ages, be it remembered, we do not allude.
The great mischief which has befallen our people, in the

PERIOD VII — THETALMgE. 287

supposed superiority of form over spirit — the ordipauces of the
Talmud over those given by Moses, and explained by the
prophets — originates not in the first venerable compilers of the
Talmud at the time of our dispersion, but in the writers of the <
middle ages, whose minds were darkened by the bloody ashes
of persecution, who beheld all of spirituality apparently about to
succumb before the awful darkness and abasement in which
misery had plunged the mass ; and who, in consequence, multi
plied forms to guard them still more strictly from assimilation
with their persecutors. And all those laws in which the fierce ~"L
exclusiveness, so contrary to the spirit of love pervading the law
of God, is founded, owe their origin to the same source. Oppo
nents would do well to remember this, and, when they point to
vows and laws which appear to contradict the law of God,
apply them to their only source, not the disobedience of the
Jew, but the persecution of the Gentile, and the dark misery __
thence ensuing.

But in our first dispersion, eagerly and rejoicingly the people
listened to and observed the mild protecting ordinances of their
spiritual teachers. In their banishment and misery, they beheld
the awful fulfilment of the Eternal's word ; and remembering
the beneficent mercy and forbearance which they had scorned,
turned in deep repentance once more to their God. Their con
science, their earnest longings, to prove repentance by obedience,
found rest and peace in the steady observance of ordinances
which in their captive state they could obey, and which brought
down the spiritual religion of their own bright land to the
homes and synagogues of their captivity. These ordinances^ — j
and the spiritual supremacy of the Rabbins, became even the
more necessary, as the Christian and then the Mahomedan
religions spread. It was comparatively easy to separate them
selves from the idolatrous abominations of the Heathen ; but
when they were thrown sometimes amongst the followers of the
Nazarene, -acknowledging the same God and the same moral
Jaw — at others, with the followers of Mahomed, proclaiming the
unity of God, observing the same covenant of Abraham, having
some belief in Moses, and refusing the same interdicted food —
the necessity of increased exclusiveness and care of the great
mass of the people, who were in much too degraded and
enslaved a position to realize the superior spirituality and truth
of their own religion, became more and more evident, and gav«
24

288 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

HWUM3 I

/>nity

our wise men still greater power and authority than they had
originally sought. The multitudes scattered in every land, and
liable to every insult and persecution, had neither the oppor-
nor the mind to study for themselves, and were glad to
t follow unquestioningly in the path laid down.

If we impartially consider our position in the long centuries
of persecution, we surely cannot wonder even if inward spiritu
ality did in some degree give place to outward form. To
realize the former as our God demands, requires a position of
comparative freedom — a breathing space, as it were — to culti
vate all those refining and elevating emotions which enlarge and
spiritualize the soul. In many countries the Hebrew was sunk
to a lower and more degraded position, than even (we will not
say the slaves) the very beasts of the soil. If, in those eras,
they had not had some ordinances which they could obey, with
out even caring to know the wherefore, how could their religion
have been preserved ? We allude merely to those brief calms
in their lives, when the sword of slaughter, though hovering
over them, was still sheathed. At those times the mass might
have appeared only to possess and value the casket, not the
jewel ; but where the hovering sword fell, and multitudes were
doomed to the dread alternative o( death, or denial of their
God, then did the immortal glory of the jewel flash through the
encircling casket, and endow them with the pure spirit of hope
and faith which gave them strength to die ! Mere blind
adherence to instituted forms could never have done this. The
spirit of their holy religion was breathed into every breast,
invisible and unfelt in the sluggish depths of daily misery and
constant fear, but bursting into life at the first call, and endow
ing with that firm belief in immortality which alone creates the
martyr.

Those periods, then, in our history, in which the spirit of the
Mosaic law seems lost in multiplied and weighty forms, cannot
be charged to the ordinances of our ancient fathers,. but to tha
Btill sluggish indifference which ever follows extreme excitement.
Accustomed through so many centuries to anticipate and endura
only persecution and slavery, it required a very long interval for
the Israelites even to realize the belief that there were actually
Borne countries in which they might live in perfect freedom and
equality with thiir Gentile neighbors, and, consequently, that
something more was demanded from them than mere adherence

PERIOD VII. — THE TALMUD. 280

.0 instituted forms because so did their fathers. No longer
called upon to suffer, the spirit within them so slept, that they
oecame at length almost unconscious of its existence ; and if
asked the wherefore they observed such forms, and what was
the origin of their belief, they might have found it difficult to
-eply. ° From this unnatural stagnation many Christiana^,
formed the opinion that the religion of the Jew was a mere
spiritless formula, unenlightened by a single ray of immortal
hope or spiritual faith, forgetting that the very evil they con
demn, originated in the persecution of their own ancestors, not
in the religion of the Jews.

The period of this stagnation is now, however, Almost extinct
[t had but its appointed time ; and though in some lands it
till too oppressively exists, yet wherever the Hebrew is FREE a
new spirit is awakening, giving precious promise of that time
when spirit and form shall be re-united, as the God of Love
ordained, the one aiding the other, till that perfection is attained,
which, with the purifying blessing of the Lord, will lead us to
our own dear land, and permit us once more to be His own.

CHAPTER II.

ORDINANCES AND TALES OF THE TALM (ID, RE LAT
INO TO THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

HAVING thus briefly glanced over the real origin, mtent, and
meaning of the Talmudic Ordinances, we will return to the point
whence we started, and ascertain whether or not our venerable
sages so completely contradicted the spirit of the law of Moses,
as to hint, countenance, or ordain the degradation of the Hebrew
female. For this purpose, we will transcribe a few of the rabbi
nical maxims, with which we have been favored by the kindness
of the friend already referred to, whose sound knowledge of thu
Hebrew, both Biblical and Talmudical, and deep research, render
tis information on the subject indeed invaluable. The Hebrew

290 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Review, and one or two other casual notices in divine history,
have also enabled us to form an opinion : but the Talmud itself
should be its foundation ; and from that we, as a female, are
unhappily debarred.

We must refer once more, though unwillingly, to the Naza-
rene assertion, that their religion was the first, and is the only
one, which provides for women. " For woman never would,
and never could have risen to her present station in the social
system, had it not been for the dignity with which Christianity
invested those qualities peculiarly her own" etc.* We can quite
understand and sympathize in the Christian woman's love foi
her own faith, and heartfelt eloquence in the privileges it
assures her. We can quite understand — when she compares
her lot with that of the Heathen and Mahomedan, and remem
bers, that had it not been for the wider spread of Christianity,
her fate w^ uld still have been the same — the glow of mind and
heart, which must infuse her whole being, and naturally be
reflected in her writings ; but then, in her eloquent appeal to
young countrjTwomen to remember what they owe to Chris
tianity, let her not be so unjust as to count the Jewish religion
amongst those in which woman, in her clinging and truly
feminine character, is uncared for and unvalued. The moral
laws to which she owes her privileges, came from us, and us
arone. Who were the apostles and preachers ? Who went
about, giving the Heathen a knowledge of Israel's God, though
they disregarded the ceremonial law ? Who but HEBREWS

* Woman's Mission, page 140. We should not lay so much stress
upon this point, were such observations as those quoted above confined
to conversation. But when we see such sentiments as are contained in
pages 140, 141, and 142, of a work, which, from its deserved popularity,
is disseminated, not only over our England, but, no doubt, over many
other countries, how can we pass such charges by 1 Did the authoress
not allude to the Jews, we should not feel the necessity of noticing it so
imperative, but when even the religion of the people of God is included
in such false and sweeping assertions (see page 142), we should be failing
in either respect or love for our own holy faith, did we not endeavor to
remove the impression. Many of our young sisters are acquainted with
the really excellent little work in question, and unless well guarded, by
finding all that the authoress urges in support of Christianity in their own
holy faith, are likely to be startled and annoyed by what appears so
plausible ; the more so from the justice and moderation and truth of th«
previous chapters. In writing for our own sex, we are not authorized in
jofusing to notice such mistaken charges.

PERIOD VII. TALMUDIC PRECEPTS. 291

whose whole minds and hearts were imbued, not with new doc*
trines, but with the Hebrew moral law, which they disseminated
in their wanderings, in such simple language as was best fitted
for the long-darkened understandings of the Heathen whom_
they addressed ? Jesus himself was a Jew, and every word
which he preached or said in regard to morality, even his para
bles themselves, have their foundation in the commentaries of
the Jewish elders on the written law. We cannot trace a single
moral statute throughout the New Testament, which is new, or J
even simplified to us. What may seem obscure, from the pure
spirituality of the words of Moses, our venerable sages explain
in language so simple and expressive, that the most obtuse could
not fail to understand. While, then, we willingly acknowledge
that every Gentile nation, under the mild, equitable influence of
Christianity, has every reason to love and venerate the religion
it upholds, and that every Christian woman would be wanting
alike in honesty and enthusiasm, did she not consider her lot as
blessed above that of every other Gentilft land, let her not throw
a slur upon the females of that holy faith, from whose privileges
her own have sprung, and for whose safety, protection, guidance,
and elevation for the obtaining and encouraging all the loveliest
and most feminine attributes of her sex, the Most High himself
deigned to lay down laws, disregard to which was disobedience
to himself.

This argument we have already treated at length in our
Second Period, where we brought forward every statute relative
to the Hebrew female, which our great lawgiver wrote down.
In the succeeding Periods, even after we left the records of the
Bible for the later history of Josephus, we have shown, and we
believe somewhat satisfactorily, how those laws were followed by
the influence and treatment of the females of Judea, even when
the pure law was almost lost in the national anarchy reigning,
with little intermission, during the continuation of the Second
Temple.

Surely this ought to be sufficient, even for those who declare
that modern Judaism is distinct from, and even opposed to, the
Judaism of the Bible, and that the Talmud is the cause. We
do not think that the New Testament itself can bring forward a
more touching and beautiful ordinance than the following : —
" Make allowance for the weakness of thy wife ; and if thou
canst not raise her to thee,.do thou stoop, and speak encourag-

292 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

ingly to her" — or, "If thy wife be of small stature, stoop, and
speak gently to her." Again, " Ever be zealous for the honor
of thy wife ; for there is no blessing found in a man's house,
which comes not through his wife."

To love their wives was natural ; therefore love is not so much
insisted upon as honor and respect. " Hold your wives in high
respect, and you will be rich indeed ;" but "how could a man
respect his wife, if her domestic and social position were degraded
and enslaved ? Again, " A man should honor his wife more
than himself, and love her as he does his own person." Here
love is valued less than honor, because we may love an inferior

/ being. We can only respect and honor superior virtue and
elevated qualities ; and this statute could never have proceeded
from men accustomed to look on their wives in the light of
inferiors, or in any single point but on an equality with them
selves.

" Whoever marries a woman for money alone, will not have
children according to his wishes," because the ancient fathers

£> looked on " Woman's mission" to be principally the education
of her family, an idea borne out by the whole history of the
Jews, in the particular mention of the mothers of kings, and
other exalted persons. " A man should beware of marrying
the daughter of an uneducated man ; for should he die, or be
banished, his children must remain uneducated, their mother
being unacquainted with the glory of education." An equal
care is taken for the comfort and respect due to an educated
wife. " A man should give his daughter to an educated man,
for no disgrace or strife enters the house of a man of education."
Now were the Hebrew wife a mere cypher in the household,
what could it signify on whom she was bestowed ? Exactly in
accordance with the spirit of the Mosaic Law, the duties pre
scribed by the Talmud towards mothers are of equal weight and

' force as towards the fathers ; even more, for if a son see his
mother and father either imprisoned or in danger, he is bound
to save his mother even before his father — a natural and an
affecting ordinance ; for the latter is supposed, from greatei
physical strength and mental energy, to be more easily enabled
to save himself, while the weakness and delicacy of the mother
rendered her entirely dependent on her son. The law of God
commanded the same honor to be paid the mother as the fathei
(see Second Period — laws for mothers), and the venerable com

PERIOD VII. TALMUD 1C PRECEPTS. 293

oilers of the Talmud departed not one item from its spirit; thus
upholding the moral and social dignity of women, even had
there been no other law. That the ^mother, as well as the chil
dren, were to honor the father of a family, surely cannot be
twisted into a degrading ordinance. Unhappy, indeed, is the
woman of any creed, rank, or country, who cannot, with her
whole heart, mind, and soul, honor the father of her children
— the husband of her choice !

The laws for the widows and the fatherless also, on which
we laid so much stress, as marking the care for woman by the
Mosaic law, in our Second Period, we find commented upon by
>ur ancient fathers, so exactly in the pure spirit of the Divine
ordinance, that we cannot resist transcribing the whole passage.

" Be very careful in the treatment of widows and orphan?,
not merely If they be poor ; but because their spirits be broken,
though they be ever so rich. Even the widow of a king, and
his orphans, demand that carefulness. For it is said, * All
widows and orphans shall ye not oppress.' Let the manner of
addressing them be kind ; do not burden them with labor, or
oppress them with harsh words. Let their property be more
precious to thee than thine own ; for he that offends or oppresses
them, and injures their property, is an evil-doer, and his punish
ment is expressed in the law : ' And my anger shall break out
against you,' &c. (Exodus xxii. 24.) The Holy One, blessed
be He, has vouchsafed to grant them a particular covenant,
that when they invoke Him against their oppressors, they shall
be heard, as it is said, ' When they call up to me I will hear
them, for I am merciful.' " (Ex. xx. 23.)

The prohibition to offend them is, however, only in cases
where it may cause them injury : but when it is for their good ;
as for instance, where a teacher is to instruct them in the law,
or in his trade, it is a duty to reprove them ; nevertheless, a
distinction ought to be made in their favor, and they should be >v
treated with greater forbearance than other pupils, so as to ,
instruct them mildly, with great patience and attention ; for it is "
said, the Lord will defend their cause," &c. (Psalm cxl. 12.)
Whether the child have lost father or mother, it is alike called
an orphan, until it attains an age to protect itself.* And this

* Extracted from the Hebrew Review, pp. GO and 61. Thence Uken
from Morality of the Talmud. Hilchoth Deoth (Ethic Precepts) Pir,
Fi soct. 10.

294 1HE WOMEN OP ISRAEL.

i- at once proves that the Hebrew mother was even on a mora
acknowledged equality with the father than in any other nation ;
for we believe that orphans in general mean those who have
" lost both parents, or & father only.

"We think, if we look the world over, and examine every
religious or moral code, we shall fail to find any laws to surpass
theue ; not only in humanity, but in most exquisite tenderness
to that bruised and broken reed, a widow of any rank or class,
from the relict of a sovereign to the relict of a slave (so called),
guiding not alone conduct towards her, but actually words and
the manner of address.

Again, we find peculiar regard paid by the Talmudists to the
laws instituted by Moses for females of every denomination, as
is proved by such laws as the following : " The woman takes
precedence of the male in being fed, clad, and freed from capti
vity." Repeatedly recommending us to afford protection and
relief to the female first, and then to the male, in strong figures,
which are so common to Eastern idiom, it commands, " Let thy
table be considerably within thy means ; thy dress and appear
ance according to thy means ; but the comforts of thy wife and
children beyond thy means."

We have already noticed the humane statutes in our law, for
the protection and comfort of the maid servants, or female
slaves in Israel (see Second Period) ; and that it was illegal for
a man to transfer his Hebrew maid servant to another master.
In exact accordance with the spirit of this beautiful ordinance,
Tradition (or the Talmud) tells us : " The male servant became
free on his master's death, provided there was no male heir ; but
for the female servant's release, there was no such condition."
Her master's dying hour was the moment of her manu
mission, expressed in the Talmudic simple brevity by the
-v words ; " The Hebrew maid servant serves neither son nor
daughter."

Here, then, even in these few and trifling extracts, we find,
that instead of contradicting, every statute given by Moses rela
tive to mothers, wives, daughters, widows, and maid servants in
Israel, is confirmed by the Talmudic precepts, and so simplified,
that it is impossible even for wilful misconception to mistake
their meaning. There may be many turns and points in the writings
of our ancient sages seeming to contradict them, more especially
in the light in which our opponents, to serve their own pur-

PERIOD VII. TALMUDIC PRECEPTS. 295

Fu^-=, brino- them forward : but with such laws as we have
quoted, all else is of little moment. We know that they must
have been written by men well versed, not only in the
ordinances but in the spirit of the law written by Moses, simply
because of their exact accordance; that at the time such
precepts were collected and written, the social or domestic
position of woman could not have been the degraded and
frivolous one assigned in general to the females of the East.
That the Talmud must have regarded them as companions and
friends to their husbands— educators of their children— mis
tresses of their household ; and possessing, from their physical
weakness and delicacy, such claims on the protection, tender
ness, and kindness, not of their relatives alone, but of their nation
in general, which are not to be found in the moral code of any
other people.

What later Jewish writers, therefore, may urge upon ttie
subject, if it contradict this spirit, by assigning either position,
duties, or employments, derogatory to her as a female, a recipient
and promulgator of the law of God, or debarring her from
those religious and social principles which were granted her
from the delivery of the law, and proved her own by the history
of every Jewish female mentioned in the Bible — those laws,
statutes, ordinances, precepts, or even allusions, can be now
nothing worth whatever, for not only (if there be such) do they
contradict the law, but the traditions; not only disregard
Moses, but the venerable fathers; and, therefore, need neither
notice nor denial. However wise and learned may be their
writers ; however gravely they may be weighed and given, if in
one single instance they contradict the law of God and the tra
ditions of the fathers quoted above, we reject them altogether asj
neither guiding nor binding laws. Speculative theories they
may be, probably originating from an intimate association with
the Moors of Spain and other nations of Eastern origin and
Moslem faith, or even the Nazarenes themselves; for, m
the middle ages, under the darkened sway of Catholicism,
we certainly can trace very little of the humanizing and elevat
ing effect of Christianity on her female votaries, to which
the authoress of "Woman's Mission" so eloquently reverts.
But speculative theories have nothing to do with a guiding
law. The middle ages teemed with suggestive and inquiring
tpmts among the Jews. The Bible became almost a sealed

296 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

book, from the extreme danger attendant on public perusal au<j
public explanation. Debarred alike from social intercourse
or means of gratifying individual ambition, the study of the

— >Talmud was their only resource; the hyperbolic and orient
figures, which were mingled with beautiful parables and simple
L precepts, became to the uninitiated significant of meanings never
contemplated by the writers themselves. On these they raised
their own theories and speculations'— some reasonable, some
" fanciful, but none gifted with authority to contradict, or take
the place of previous laws. They swelled llie multitude of
volumes already known as the Talmud ; and, therefon, wLep
one word or precept is discovered which can be twisted
into Jewish contempt of woman, not only the whole work,
but the religion itself is contemned ; such contemners entirely
forgetting that the mighty work they quote, is the reflection not
of one but of very many differing minds, and that the opinions
are either merely individual or national, according as they
contradict or uphold, not only the ordinances, but the spirit of
the law of Moses.

Thus, then, even granting the existence of some portions
in our Talmud apparently derogatory to women, they are
of no importance, and never guided our social system : but
often those very portions, on which our opponents argue
most eloquently, have nothing to do with the contempt towards
females with which they are charged. We will bring forward
one instance to explain our meaning.

^ Amongst the Hebrews, no capital punishment could be

inflicted on the testimony of a woman ; now this is, of course,
twisted by mistaken men into an idea that it proceeded from a
contemptuous notion of woman's judgment, an utter mistrust of
her veracity, and a supposition that she was not even considered
of sufficient consequence to take an oath, or otherwise share in
solemn public proceedings.

A brief glance back on the respect paid to Miriam, Deborah,
and Huldah, must at once overthrow this idea. It would cer
tainly be an inconsistency not at all according to the stern sim
plicity of the Jewish character, to allow the mothers and wives
in Israel " the high prerogative of speaking in the name of
the Eternal, obey their behests, and yet to refuse them the com
mon justice of being believed." But eager zeal to promote the
all-important object of our conversion, does not venture quite so

PERIOD VII. TALMDDIC PRECEPTS. 297

deeply. Happily we can reply by facts as strongly as by sug
gestions : " It was the awful duty of the witness to bear out the
truth of his deposition by the execution of the verdict ; and
it was this part of the functions of a witness which the law
nobly declared the female citizen to be unable to perform.
Instead of being a stigma upon the character of the nation
generally, and of their female population especially, it must, on
the contrary, inspire us with admiration of the delicacy of feel
ing displayed in that enactment."* And when we compare
tins delicacy with the manners and customs of contemporary
nations, the superior elevation and advancement of the people of
God must strike us very forcibly. The Hebrew female was
debarred by a most just and humane ordinance, from even
witnessing the shedding of human blood. Surely this is a forci
ble proof of the care taken in the Talmud to preserve her femi
nine nature in all its original gentleness and purity ; even if the
restriction should be thought a harsh one by those females who,
in civilized countries, may still be found accompanying the
criminal to the place of execution, not to bear witness against
him, but simply to satisfy their own will and pleasure by
the sight of death. In those horrible combats between the
hapless gladiators and the wild beasts, in polished, though
heathen Rome, women thronged the amphitheatre. In later
days, when Catholicism usurped the place of Heathenism,
bull-fights arose, in which not only was an innocent animal
tortured, but many human beings exposed to death, and yet the
beauties of Spain would have felt it a hard restriction had they
been prohibited from witnessing the sports. The tournaments
themselves, if we examine them, we must confess to be scarcely
tit scenes for women; though we ourselves feel that, in their
age, they must have been fraught with an excitement and
a chivalry, from which, in the position the higher females then
occupied, it might have seemed hard for them to be debarred.
But in Judea, in the Hebrew commonwealth at least, we never
find mention of such things. War, with its concomitants, was
to them a necessity, not a pastime. The introduction of the
Greek and Roman games was a source of the deepest national
affliction, as a departure from the holy purity and refined sim-

* Hebrew Review, vol. in. p. 22, from an articla entitled, " On tha
Administration of Justice among the Hebrews."

298 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

plicity inseparable from a strict adherence to the laws of
Moses.

It is impossible to compare the social system of the Jews
even with the refined notions of other nations of our own day,
and yet not to perceive its superiority at once. Even plays
were unknown. Actors, ballet-dancers, buffoons, were meaning
less terms. The holy people would surely have thought them
selves degraded by the very admission of such characters. Yet
the arts and sciences were cultivated by them to a pitch of
learning, glory, and perfection, unsurpassed, if <jven equalled,
by either Greece or Rome. Music and poetry were to them
the atmosphere they breathed ; architecture, engraving, embroi
dery, cunning work in every metal and in every precious stone,
rose to a height in their One Temple, and in their palaces, and
even houses, which modern times vainly strive to outvie.
Painting and sculpture, as the arts we now esteem them, were
not so much known, from the care taken to prevent the smallest
assimilation to the idolatrous worship of the neighboring nations,
by either in paint, wood, or stone, making the likeness of any
thing that is in the heaven above, or the earth beneath, or the
waters under the earth, although the cherubim which adorned
the Ark, and the brazen bulls of the Temple, proved that even
sculpture must have been an art well known. Dancing, usually
common to barbarous nations, we have seen, was not such to us.
but usually made the constant accompaniment of national anct
holy rejoicings, and therefore not regarded in Israel merely as
a frivolous pastime ; but, as the natural recreation of the young
'"" and happy, considered an acceptable and pleasing offering of
loving hearts to their holy and gracious King.

In a nation, then, so peculiarly and especially spiritualized and
refined, if there should be some social laws respecting their
^female population which appear to give them less freedom than
the females of other nations, it was simply to render them more
and more worthy of sustaining that two-fold most holy character
— mothers of Israel and daughters of the Lord. We can find
nothing either in the Law or its commentaries, by our really
ancient fathers, to permit the supposition that either in the
religious, moral, social, or domestic system, we were to be
regarded as of less importance, less responsibility, and of less
value in the sight of our God, and of the state, than our brother
Man, We were- -we are — equals in every spiritual privilege,

PERIOD VII. TALMUDIC TALES. 299

and every social and domestic law. Man could neither degrade
us individually, nor deprive us generally, of any privilege or
promise given unto Israel. That he never attempted to do so
during the continuance of Israel as a nation, we have seen ; and
therefore, whatever statutes from the Talmud may be brought
forward to startle us by their seeming to enslave us — we may
rest quietly assured, first, that they might be explained away,
were the whole examined, with the same ease as those prohibit
ing female witnesses, which we have noticed ; second 'y, that
they were probably absolutely necessary at the time they were
given, to preserve the feminine purity, gentleness, and modesty
of the women of Israel unsullied ; and lastly, if they will not
abide either of these tests, and are absolutely and unanswerably
enslaving, heathenizing, and degrading, that they have founda
tion hi neither law nor tradition, and consequently pcssess no
authority, and demand no obedience — their own incongruity
with both the history as well as the law of Israel, being quite
sufficient for their entire rejection and utter condemnation, alike
by the Ilebrew state as by individuals.

Precepts to insure the elevated position of the women of
Israel were not in themselves sufficient to satisfy our ancient
fathers. Besides the historical evidence that widows of kings
could reign in their own right in Israel, we find many most
beautiful allusions to woman in narrations, which, even granting
they be but tradition, could only have sprung from the generally
received idea of woman's dignity, gentleness, and influence, and
also her vast capabilities of acquiring, and opportunities of using,
the most erudite readings of the Law. We are told that the
wisdom and learning of Beruria, the wife of R. Meir, were
eceived with even more deference than those of Meir himself.
She not only understood the written word, but left three hundred
traditions, and is placed amongst the Tanaites, or expositors of
the Mishna. Now, how could such an assurance be found in
the Talmud, if religious knowledge and opportunities of deep
and severe study were, either by a law of the state or public
opinion, denied to woman ? It is folly to suppose it, even for a
moment. If some modern Jewish opinions, concerning the"
impossibility of woman comprehending the Law, or the pre
sumption and folly of her attempting to make religion her study,
had had existence then, why poor Beruria might have shared
the fate of some of the hapless learned of the middle ages, who

500 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

were persecuted and burned, simply because their minds out
stripped their age. But the memorable chroniclers of Beruria
knew too well both the position and the capabilities of their
countrywomen to refuse their appreciation and reverence when
called upon to give them. Their affection for her memory is
proved by the touching apologues in which she is brought
forward, in a character so essentially feminine, that it is clear
| how completely they believed in the perfect compatibility of
/ learning with every womanly feeling and attribute. To our
countrywomen the brief notices are so well known, that it
would be needless to repeat them, did we not hope that they would
bring the Talmudic notices of woman in a somewhat novel light
to our Christian friends.

Rabbi Meir appears to have been as impetuous and rash as
his wife was gentle and judicious. Irritated at persecuting
insults, which he had received from some sinful men in his
neighborhood, he uttered an imprecation against them in the
words of David : " Let the sinners be consumed out of the
earth, arid let the wicked be no more." " You are wrong, my
husband— -such was not king David's meaning," was the soothing
reply. " He prayed that sin might be consumed from off the
earth, for then the wicked would be no more. He sought the
destruction of sin, not of the sinners;" and, perfectly aware that
the Hebrew quite authorized such rendering of the verse, the
Rabbi acknowledged the justice of his wife's rebuke.

The other apologue of the same gentle feeling woman, is more
generally known thro h the medium of Coleridge's " Friend."
It was the custom of Rabbi Meir to attend the school and
synagogue for several hours consecutively, often during the whole
day — and, during one of these long absences from home, his
sons, boys of great promise and beauty, both died. Conquering
the anguish of a mother in the strong affection of a wife, who
knew the passionate love borne by the father for his offspring,
and dreading the effect of sudden grief, she met her husband at
supper with her usual calm and tranquil mien. He naturally
inquired for his sons, but she skilfully evaded the question, and,
at the conclusion of the meal, stated that she had an important
question to ask him, the answer to which had much troubled
her. The rabbi encouraged her to speak ; and she related,
" that a neighbor had lent her some jewels of inestimable value,
%nd now required them to be returned. Ought she to give

PERIOD VII. — TALMUDIC TALES. 301

them back ?" Surprised, the rabbi replied, " that surely life
wife needed not even to ask the question, the answer was so
self-evident." Without rejoinder, she led him "into the room
where the bodies lay, and, removing the white cloth which
concealed them, revealed their loss. She permitted the first
burst of agonized grief; and then, soothingly recalling his own
verdict, touchingly repeated, " The Lord gave, and the Lord
hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord ?"

Can anything be more beautifully true to woman's nature
than these brief tales ? Even granted they cannot be proved
as true, but are merely traditionary ; what a high and beautiful
sense of the female Israelite's capability and characteristics,
must the ancient fathers have entertained ! How contradictory
to the modern assertion — that they degrade and enslave us, aud
so regard us with contempt ! Accustomed to associate with
such characters as Hannah, Abigail, Huldah, the Shunammite,
and Esther, the sages knew that, to be highly gifted, learned,"
and wise, in a for nobler sense than the modern acceptation of
the terms, and withal to be truly and exquisitely feminine, essen
tially the woman, was not the apocryphal combination which it
is at present considered. The Talmudic writers must have
thought highly and nobly of women, or such traits as we have
brought forward, and those found in Hurwitz's Hebrew Tales,
would never have been admitted within their volumes. Their
minds were much too solemn, and too fond of weighty research,
to allow such flights as romantic descriptions of woman's excel
lence ; which, if only accustomed to regard their mothers, wives,
jmd sisters, in a degraded light, these notices and even laws
would be.

Surely then, even this brief and imperfect reference to the
venerable volumes which — as reflections of some of the highest
and the purest, the noblest and the holiest minds who ever
labored for the good of man, and lived but to know and prove
the glory of the Lord — we value from our very heart ; even this
snay be permitted to remove some prejudice, and convince our
opponents and ourselves, that not a thought so contrary to thlTj
spirit of the law as the degrading of woman either socially or/
individually, or even the non-caring for her weakness and hen
gentle nature, the refusing of all regard to her peculiarly femi-i
nine characteristics, ever entered the hearts or minds of ourj
lages : their aim was to obey the law of God, and to provide

302 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

for and protect her as woman. The very laws that, on a mere
hasty reading, might seem in their strictness to interfere with
her perfect freedom of act and will, are only evidences of theii
desire to preserve the feminine beauty and modesty of hei
character unsullied, and more probably instituted at those times
when the extreme laxity and rudeness of the nations around
rendered them absolutely necessary, to keep the " Women of
Israel" apart, that their holiness might never be profaned, iven
by casual association.

Oh ! that we had but eloquence and influence sufficient to urge

-'/ our brethren to engage in the glorious task of removing the dust
and rubbish which persecution, prejudice, and ignorance, have
gathered round the pure and simple lessons, the exquisite
allegories and glowing diction of our ancient fathers, and to
x publish in the vernacular idiom of every land, the wisdom which
those mighty tomes conceal ! Give us our own ! Compel us
not, out of pure thirst, to seek the works of Gentile write rs for
commentators on the word of our God — for sympathy in our
aspiring thoughts, for rest to our wearied souls, unable yet to
understand the full beauty of the Bible, without some simple
explanation which would flash light over the inspired pages, and
so enable us to take them to our heart, and find co:jsoktion.

f Compel us not to turn to the Gentile works for these. Unseal
the fountains of pure waters which our aged seers provided ;
give us their renderings of the moral law ; their spirit and
aphorisms ; their orient imagery, which, in its power and imagi
nation, will outvie every other. Give us their detail of Jewish
history ; do not compel us to abide by the details of those whose

, faith is opposed to our own, who believe us blinded and degraded,

• and whose peculiar views must inspire their pages. The Hebrew
who would do this, however gradually — who would provide our
youth with works from our own writers, simplified, if needed, to
their comprehension, and selected as would best meet the spirit
of the age, would, indeed, rank among the first and noblest
benefactors of this kind, and would prove the love which, as an
Israelite, should b<? borne in his heart towards Israeli sous and
Israel's God.

PERIOD VII. DISPERSION. 303

CHAPTER III.

IFFECTS OF DISPERSION AND PERSECUTION
GENERAL REMARKS.

IT would be irrelevant to our present task, besides extending
our work to much Loo great a length, to attempt any detailed
account of the Hebrew nation, from their dispersion to the
present time ; the third volume of Milman's History, and an
admirable American work, History of the Jews, by Hannah
Adams, commencing from the destruction of Jerusalem, and
accompanying us through our varied destinies till some fifty
years ago ; besides many other works in the modern languages,
which no doubt exist, though to us they may not be known,
will give all the needful information of us, as a people.

One trifling incident we will, however, mention, ere we leave
the history of the past, and conclude our work by a brief survey
of the present. In the reign of the emperor Julian, an edict
was issued for the re-erection of the Temple of Jerusalem on
Mount Moriah, and the " restoration of the Jewish worship in
all its splendor."

The commotion which this edict occasioned to the Jews in
every quarter of the empire may be imagined. They crowded
in vast numbers to Palestine, and their wealth poured forth in
such lavish profusion, that even the tools they used were to be
sanctified to the service by being made of the most costly
materials — the women seconded their brethren, giving up every
personal ornament and hoarded jewel to forward the glorious
work. The prophets allude to the pride and folly of the women
of Judea, loving their ornaments more than the law, as one of
the iniquities from which Judea was to be purged , and it would
seem by this mention, as if the propensity had been indeed
crushed from the hearts of the women of Israel, and that even,
as in the time of Moses, when to adorn the tabernacle they
brought all their ornaments and the work of their hands till
more than enough was given, — so, now, they are equally earnest
and enthusiastic in the holy cause. The work was indeed

304 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

frustrated ; for the word of the Lord had passed, and the land
was to enjoy her sabbaths and the temple remain unbuilt^ till,
the term of exile past, repentant Israel might be recalled ; but
the mention of the eager zeal of the women of Israel marks how
dear and precious to them, as well as to their brother man, was
the religion of Jerusalem ; that they must have known and felt
that their temple service, and the law it included, gave them,
as women, higher and nobler privileges than any other, or they
could not have been so eager for its restoration.

Throughout our history, in all those horrible epochs of perse
cution, we can find not a single trace of the love of the Lord,
and of his Holy Faith, burning with stronger and more
enduring light, in man's heart than in woman's. The female
Hebrew never shrank from any alternative however awful, which
could save her or her children from the denial of their faith.
Death of the most horrible kind was welcome, not only for
themselves but (a trial far more awful) for their children, rather
than the forcible baptism to which they were repeatedly
exposed. No faith can bring forward a longer or more noble
list of willing female martyrs ; and what emotion could have
inspired this devotion ? What could have so triumphed over
the emotions of humanity — the tremblings of the mortal frame
— but the deepest love of their holy religion, the firmest con
viction of its immutable truth, and an unwavering belief in the
immortality which it was the first to teach, and which could
alono have endowed weak clinging woman with the noble
strength and constancy which taught her how to die ? Let
those who, in their utter ignorance of the spirit and tenets of
the Jewish religion, dare to assert that we have no unbelief in
the immortality of the soul, that it was neither taught by Moses
and the prophets, nor preached and simplified by our ancient
sages — let those, if they cannot read our venerable fathers, just
glance back on the history of our people, and answer, what was
it caused so many millions, women as well as men, to die rather
than desert their faith ? What availed such sacrifice, if they
believed this earth were all ? What mattered their creed in
this life, if death were annihilation ? No : our martyrs are our
witnesses ; and we need little other proof of the universality of
the Jewish belief in immortality, than the countless numbers
tfbo have sealed its mighty truth in their own blood.

As our martyrs are witnesses of such belief, so are oui

PERIOD VII. DISPERSION. 305

existence and preservation, of the Truth of the Revelation, of
the perpetuity of that holy faith which God Himself proclaimed
should last for ever. Where now are the mighty nations of
Babylon and Rome, before whose conquering arms Judea lay
prostrate, and her children fell mingling dust with dust, or were
scattered to every quarter of the globe like chaff before the wind ?
Where are the mighty conquerors ? Lost amid the dim shadows
of the past : and what are they but names which once were
great ? But where are the conquered \ Ask of every land and
every age ; and they will point to them as a people still, for
ever PRESENT, never PAST : and what are they ? God's people
still — His witnesses, whom naught of earth and earthly change
can touch. Nations and dynasties, conquerors and conquered,
are swept from the face of the earth, leaving not a trace ; but
the persecuted, the oppressed, the tortured, the only nation
which has seen millions and millions fall by the destroying
sword, and in later times beheld but too many lost by smoother,
but even more dangerous means ; — that nation still lives,
breathes unchanged, its ranks undiminished, its undying vitality
seeming to receive increase of strength and firmness from every
blow that seeks its downfall. Cemented by the blood of noble
martyrs, supported by the pillars of divine truth, and wisdom,
and love, it rears its head in every land, as a temple that will
never fall, and all, man, woman, and child, who seek to love and
obey the Lord according to His law vouchsafed to Moses, add
to its solidity and beauty, and bear witness to its truth.

Our existence is in itself a miracle : naught but the provi
dence of God could have thus preserved us ; a nation so com
pletely apart, that, though for more than eighteen centuries
scattered over the whole world, and found in every land, our
identity has never been lost, our race has never mingled, our
religion has never changed. Our most vehement opposers grant
us this ; but they tell us, that we worship not now as Moses
taught ; that we are guided by the Talmud, not by God. We
could reply, that if the one dared to contradict the other, no
Jew would acknowledge its legality, or obey its dictates ; but
we wish to prove, that if our manners and customs do in some
instances appear to difter from the spirit inculcated by our
inspired lawgiver, it is the necessary consequence of our
captivity, foreseen by God Himself, and provided for by the
principal statutes contained in Levit. xxvi. ver. 39 to the end,

806 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

and Deut. xxx., which in clear and emphatic terms laid down
all that was necessary for our acceptance.

Our law was given to a holy people, framed for a government
and a nation which, in its domestic and political bearings, was
to stand alone. When the sins and manifold rebellions of the
children of Israel compelled their expulsion from the Holy
Land, lost them the direct interference of their God, both by the
Shechinah and by his prophets, and scattered them over the whole
world, it was a part of their awful chastisement, that while the
word of the Eternal preserved their faith and its holy ordinances
unchanged, their social, domestic, and individual position should
be guided no longer by the pure spirit of the La\v4 but by tho
spirit of the nations amongst whom they were thrown. Thus
we always perceive that the Jews are in a measure civilized or
barbarized, according as civilization or barbarism pervade the
people amongst whom they dwell. How was it possible for
them to retain the social and mental elevation, the pure spirit
ual religion, the loveliness of home which had marked them in
their own land, when subjected to the oppression, the slavery, the
cruelty, with which the history of the middle ages teems ; when
moral and mental darkness was all around them, seeking also to
crush them under the fierce persecutions, which from such mental
and moral darkness sprang ; how could the mass retain the spirit
uality, the elevation of their ancestors ? Individuals there were
no doubt, who were Israelites indeed, spiritually and mentally,
as well as rigid adherents to every form ; but the mass must of
necessity have shared the darkness of the oppressors under whom
they groaned. Spiritually and mentally, social and domestic
elevation demands and imperatively needs an atmosphere cf
equality and freedom, or they must either droop and die, or be
shrouded in such secresy, and so closely next the heart, as to be
entirely invisible in history.

This is proved by our history, in what is aptly termed by
Milman, the " Golden Age of Judaism." It was, indeed, of very
short duration ; but during its continuance, we find " the Jews
not only pursuing unmolested their lucrative and enterprising
traffic, not merely merchants of splendor and opulence, but sud
denly emerging to offices of dignity and trust, administering the
finances of Christian and Mahomedan kingdoms, and travelling
us ambassadors between mighty sovereigns."* In France,, dur

* Milman, vol. iii. p. 369.

PERIOD VII. DISPERSION. 307

hig the reign of Charlemagne, " from the ports of Marseilles and
Narbonne, their vessels kept up a constant communication with
the East." In Narbonne, of the two prefects (or mayors of the
city) one was always a Jew ; and the most regular and stately
oart of the city of Lyons was always the Jewish quarter. The
puperior intelligence and education of the Jews, during a period
when nobles and kings and even the clergy could not always
write their names, pointed them out for offices of trust. They
were the physicians, and the ministers of finance, to nobles and
to monarchs. And in the reign of Charlemagne, " Europe and
Asia beheld the extraordinary spectacle of a Jew named Isaac,
setting forth with two Christian counts, one of whom died on the
road, as ambassador from Charlemagne to Ilaroun Al Raschid,
and conducting the political correspondence between the court of
Aix-la-Chapelle and Bagdad."*

In Spain, both under the influence of Moorish and Christian
sovereigns, the golden age of Judaism endured the longest, to
set in the deepest darkness. The long line of literary men, who
swelled the Jewish ranks during that epoch, sufficiently mark
the influence of freedom and prosperity upon the mind — while
the writings of Maimonides are pretty certain evidence of their
effect upon the spirit. In the calm and dignified repose of the
social position which that golden age allowed him, Maimonides
advanced so much beyond his times and country that, like all
benefactors of their kind, he was neither understood nor appreci
ated by his contemporaries. But the more enlightened our
nation has become, the more have his profound wisdom and
spiritual revelations of the wisdom and goodness of the Deity,
as displayed in the Law of Moses, been valued and appreciated,
and the more they will be as the Jewish mind advances.

The iron age, preceding the golden one, had originally
cramped the intellectual and spiritual powers of the mass. They
had been content and glad to tread the path laid down for
them by their teachers, without inquiring wherefore they thus
worshipped. Even their teachers, except a select and holy few,
had accustomed themselves to regard the magnificent fabric of
the Mosaic Law with silent adoration and admiring wonder ;
but Maimonides, in his daring and all-conqxiering wisdom,
looked on it with the searching light of reason, as well as the

• MiLnan's Hist., vol. iii. p. 280— 2?1.

808 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

living orb of faith ; and how he was spiritually rewarded, let hig
beautiful writings testify. His contemporaries were dazzled by
the lustre he flung upon the meaning and intentions of the holy
Law, and feared to approve it ; but his labor was not lost. The
flash, too bright to illuminate his own age,* penetrated the folds
of the far future, and spreading gradually, found souls prepared
to meet and welcome it, and shrine in their heart of hearts the
glorious mind whose wisdom had kindled it to life.

But for many, many terrible years, even the memory of the
golden age was buried under the dense pall of misery and
oppression which gathered round the hapless Israelites in every
'and, and so crushed all mental and social elevation, s,> confined
the sphere of action and employment, so banished all religious
instruction, except such as could be imparted in the deepest
Becresy, that the word Jew became and has continued synony
mous with all that is debased — with a bowed and bowing ser
vility, with exacting usury, with hard exclusiveness, and with a
merciless hatred of all mankind, and a detestation of every
religion but his own. Aye, even now, to those who have never
associated with us, whose only knowledge is drawn from books
— whose authors, with but two noble exceptions,-}- seem to
delight in fabling us as the Shylock of Shakspeare, the old
elothesman of nursery tales (noticed thus even by Miss Edge-
worth), or as the money-lenders, interest-exactors, and dis
honorable adepts in all the grades of usury which abound in
fashionable novels. And little, perhaps, do their writers know
that their fictions demonstrate far more clearly the consequences
of persecution, which their ancestors have hurled upon us, than
the real character of the Jew, or the true spirit of his creed.
Writers who know us not, depict us, not what we are, but what
lingering prejudic •} creates us, entirely forgetting the real cause

* Wisdom like his becomes to the unenlightened " dark from excess
of light."

t Sir Walter Scott, in his exquisite delineation of Rebecca and hei
father ; and Mrs. S. C. Hall, in her breathing portrait of Manasseh Ben
Israel, in the " Buccaneer," where she has so beautifully and skilfully
blended all the characteristics of the Talmudic Israelite, with the emo
tions and virtues of a father and a man — a union which most authors
appear to imagine incompatible. The character of Sidonia, in " Conings-
by," is not a being of flesh and blood, but a type of a class ; and there
fore we do not include him, though the author has done its justice as 3
Ballon.

PERIOD VII. EFFECTS OF DISPERSION. 309

of our fallen state — the impossibility of our attaining to that
elevated social state which freedom and peace have granted to
other lands, while bent to the very earth, and for ever liable, even
at this very present, to insult, ignominy, and such oppressions
as even slavery does not know. The mischief which is done by
such false pictures of the Jewish character in social and domestic
life is incalculable. It not only fosters prejudice and confirms
ignorance in our opponents, but actually causes many Jews
themselves to tremble at the term, and to endeavor to conceal a
faith and descent which should be their glory. Even those
domestic narrations which portray some members of a Jewish
family in a favorable light, that they may conclude by making
them Christians, and the other members as so stern, harsh, and
oppressive, that they bear no resemblance whatever to any
Israelite, except the Israelite of a Gentile's imagination — do but
swell the catalogue of dangerous because false works ; and
never fail to impress the minds of Christian readers with the
unalterable conviction, that whenever spirituality, amiability and
gentleness, kindliness and love, are inmates of a Hebrew heart,
it is an unanswerable proof that that heart is verging on Christi
anity, and will very speedily embrace that faith. Nay, mental
endowments themselves are welcomed as an earnest that their
possessors must quickly desert the Jewish creed ; such supposers
entirely forgetting that mental acquirements, the most profound
and searching wisdom, the most vivid and beautiful imagination,
the most elegant accomplishments, have been the heir-loom of
the Jewish nation, from their very first election as the chosen of
the Lord ; and that, instead of losing these endowments in their
dispersion, all of mind and talent in the whole European and
Asiatic world was possessed by them; and that Gentiles of
every denomination and every creed came with humility and
deference to them, glad to learn from the oppressed those
glorious gifts of mind which to the oppressors were denied.

It is not from the present state of the Hebrews, that the true
spirit of their creed and their characteristics as a nation can be
discovered. They have, indeed, retained all that marks them
as a distinct peop'e, and prevents amalgamation with the
children of the soil, in which they are but sojourners ; but their
*ocial and domestic habits are now so completely one with the
manners and customs of the lands in which they are scattered,
ihat there is nothing to distinguish them from their Gentile

BIO THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

brethren ; and this it is which often causes the false portraits of
Jewish character, when introduced in tales of the present day
They think a Jew must be different to his fellows, and so call
him from the Past, when oppression forced upon him a parti
cular character, and place him in the Present, where he looks
about as much out of place as a mail-clad baron and his rude-
mannered suite would seem, in the luxurious and refined assem
blage of England's present peers. As a people — as the chosen
witnesses — the first-born sons of the Most High God, they will
ever remain a distinct nation over the whole world. They will
ever be preserved from annihilation — ever be kept from all assi
milation with the Gentiles ; even as the river, which is said to
retain its peculiar taste and coloring in the very lakes through
which it passes. But the Jews in captivity are not what they
have been, or what they will be. Even while they remain a dis
tinct race, they have unconsciously imbibed many of the charac
teristics of the people amongst whom they dwell. The indo
mitable pride, the naughty air of superiority, which (not fifty
years since) characterized the Spanish and Portuguese Jew,
were of Spain and Portugal, not of Judea ; and if we examine
the condition of the poorest classes of that congregation, and
compare them with the same ranks in Spain and Portugal, we
shall find them so exactly similar, that the pride, poverty from
dislike to labor, indolence and dirt,* are the remnants of their
assimilation with the manners and customs of the above-named
countries ; not the characteristics of Judaism, which especially
commands honest labor and most scrupulous cleanliness. The
active business habits, and rather a want than a superfluity of
pride, in the German Jews, mark their assimilation in domestic
and social habits with the Gentile inhabitants of Germany and
Holland ; the distinction between them and their (so called)
Spanish and Portuguese brethren, which was very much more
marked fifty years ago than it is now, originates not at all in
Judaism, whose beautiful unity ought to banish all such con
ventional terms, but simply in the distinction which exista
between the characteristics of the different countries in which
they dwelt. Observe the Spaniard and Portuguese, and then

* Of course there are exceptions. We allude but to some of the very
lowest of our nation, still unhappily plunged in the ignorance and super
stition, the still remaining results of the persecution and slavery of Spain
ind Portugal.

?KRIOD VII. GERMAN AND SPANISH JEWS. 311

;ook on the German and the Dutchman ; their characteristics
are so totally distinct, that it is impossible to mistake them ;
and the Jewish inmates of these diverse lands naturally shared
the distinction, even while their holy law was the undying link
which bound them togeiher, and separated them from the reli
gion of every other land. Fifty years ago, the Sephardim con
gregation* was considered so superior to the Ashkenazim,f as to
be universally acknowledged as the aristocracy of the nation ;
but this supposition had nothing to do with Israelitish notions.
It was, in fact, contrary to the spirit of the Jewish law, which,
except in the beautiful organization of ranks in the state, looked
on all Jews as equal, and on the whole nation as the aristocracy
of the Lord. The modern distinction simply arose from, the
fact, that in Spain and Portugal the Jews had held the highest
stations in the court and camp and council ; that even after their
expulsion, they existed apparently as Christians, but in reality
most faithful Jews, amongst the very nobles and princes in both
countries ; or as merchants and doctors, not only in medicine,
but in various branches of learning : and so wealthy as always
to take their places amongst the aristocracy of the land. Ger
many has indeed ennobled a Jew ; and latterly our most learned
men have sprung from German schools. But contemporary with
the Jewish aristocracy of Spain and Portugal, the Jews in Ger
many were so oppressed, and enslaved as never to rise above
those confining and debasing employments which must ever be
the consequence of persecution ; and therefore when the two
parties met on equal ground, the free and blessed soil of
England, the haughty pride of the Spaniard (not of the Jew,
for that would have counselled differently) caused that exclusive-
ness even from his German brother, which formerly had exist
ence, but which happily is now fading rapidly into the past.
England offers a rest and home of perfect freedom to the exile
and oppressed : and if she welcomes all, will Israel continue
that mistaken distinction which only circumstances wrought?
That there is still a difference in the characteristics of German
and Portuguese, we allow ; and very probably, so constitutional
is prejudice in favor of one's own, that neither would change with
ihe other; but the difference and the prejudice are alike foreign
to Judaism. These are the effects of our dispersion ; of sixteen

* Spanish anJ Portuguese. T German

25

312 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

or seventeen centuries of assimilation with the manners and cus
toms of Germany and Spain, which unconsciously makes us feel
BO completely as children of the soil, that we forget the national
unity which our holy religion so imperatively demands, and
which will be gradually attained ; but it requires tiue. Enthu
siasm may believe it is only to be wished, to be accomplished ; but
reason tells us, that two centuries in England is not quite sufficient
to banish the prejudices of ffteen centuries spent in other lands.
We have neither of us yet become English in feeling ; nay, very
many take pleasure in fostering as a heritage the remnant of
Spanish feelings, forgetting that such characteristics have nothing
to do with Judaism ; and till we are really English Jews, the
distinction which has existed so many centuries will never be
entirely lost. The Germans will much more easily become Eng
lish than the Spanish, simply because the national characteristics
between England and Germany are less distinct and palpable
than those between England and Spain.

In exactly the same manner, the Jews, wherever they are
scattered, have imbibed prejudices, customs, and even the senti
ments which belong — not to their religion, but to the lands of
their captivity and compelled adoption. The very prejudice, to
remove which this book has been written — the Jewish degrada
tion of woman, her abasement in the social system, as a non-
partaker of religious responsibility and immortality — if traced to
its source, will be found to have originated in the blinded notions
of the Jews of Barbary, and other Eastern countries ; infused
unconsciously by the contempt for the sex peculiar to the
Mahomedan inhabitants of those lands. Other prejudices and
superstitions, supposed by the unobservant to be part of Judaism,
proceed from exactly the same reason, and have nothing what
ever to do with the religion of God.

The travellers in the Crimea speak of the filth and rapacity,
and occasional dishonesty of the Jews dwelling in that quarter,
as the necessary consequence of their blinded religion, quite
forgetting that they are but the characteristics of the Russian
and Cossack inhabitants of the same land, and imbibed by the
Jews as the necessary consequence of such long and close
association, but utteily repugnant to the spirit of their creed.

The Polish Jews, again, are different from the German and
Dutch, much more resembling the Spanish and Portuguese,
oecause their social position was more like the latter than the

PERIOD VII.— POLISH JEWS. 315

former. Whilst Poland was an independent kingdom, the
Jews formed the only middle order. Their privileges had
been secured by Casimir the Great, from the affection felt by
him towards a beautiful Jewess. They were the corn-merchants,
shop-keepers, inn-keepers, in fact almost every branch of traffic
was confined to them ; they formed the principal population of
towns, and some villages were exclusively peopled by them.
This social freedom accounts for the dignified bearing and
generally lofty character of the Polish Jew, at once distinguish
ing him from his cowed and oppressed brethren of Germany.
Even now Poland is the principal seat of rabbinical authority.
The religion, from the supremacy of forms and minute
ordinances, occasions a greater degree of rigidity and exclusive-
ness than is the case elsewhere, where the spirit of the Mosaic
Law is more freely awaking. Since the partition of Poland,
however, the condition of the Jewish population is as oppressed
and lowered, as their brethren under the Russian, Prussian, and
Austrian Governments. But still the Polish Jew, like the
Spanish and Portuguese, retains the peculiar characteristic of
his former more elevated position.

The French and Italian Jews have equally the peculiar cha
racteristics of their adopted lands, but they are less marked than
those of Germany and Spain, the above-named lands not having
been their residence for such a long continuance. But wherever
we are scattered, still the truth is evident, that though our law
and its beautiful forms remain unchangeable, immutable as their
divine ordinance, our social and domestic customs are modified
and characterized, according to the manners and customs of the
lands of our exile. We are still captives of our God, though
His mercy grants us a social freedom and relief from persecu
tion ; and in captivity how might we hope that the spirit of
our holy law could be permitted to pervade our households ?
The consequence of transgression was to expel us from our own
lovely land, to raise a barrier between us and the direct inter
ference of the Lord, to scatter us as by a whirlwind over iho
known world, and there so to degrade us from our high estate,
from being subject to the Most High God alone, that the guid
ing spirit of our homesteads was lost in the darkened barbarism
of the Gentile world.

And so it is with the Jews of the present day. English
writers, uhen they introduce the nation, overlook the Jewish

314 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

inmates of their own land, and delineate either the Spanish, or
the German, or the Polish, or the Russian Jews ; and as the
picture they draw is necessarily quite distinct from their own
manners and customs, they believe themselves, and make others
believe, that it is a perfect portrait of the Jew, whereas it is in
fact nothing more nor less than a delineation of the Spaniard, or
Pole, or German, who might just as correctly be of the Gentile
as of the Jewish creed.* To draw the Jew correctly then, not
his present condition, but the annals of the past must provide
materials. For the spirit and ordinances of his beautiful Jaith,
let the word of the Lord be consulted, and the most simple
mind must understand what and why the Jew believes, and the
forms that he obeys. Where modern Judaism, so ca'led, differs
from that standard, it is not the religion which has changed,
but circumstances which have occasioned the Jews unconsciously
to adopt die feelings, superstitions, and sentiments, the offspring
of that darkness which is the atmosphere of persecution, or of
that prosperity which has infused the sentiments and supersti
tions of the Gentiles, with whom they live in reality in close
association, while in appearance their differing creeds keep them
widely apart. Let it be remembered, we allude not to the
religion — that never has, and never will amalgamate — that will
ever be a thing sacred and apart, will never change, nor modify,
nor alter — God hath said it shall last for ever, that its children
will never cease from being a nation before Him for EVER — and
so IT WILL BE. The assimilation in social, domestic, and indivi
dual life of the Jew and Gentile, touches not their respective
creeds. Wherever he is, in whatever land, whatever company,
whatever position, a Hebrew is known as a Hebrew — and he
should glory in that distinction ordained by God Himself, to
keep His people apart — should use his utmost endeavor to pie
serve that distinction — and neither be ashamed of it himself, nor

* This extraordinary misconception of their own subject was never
more clearly marked, than in the works entitled " Sophia and Emma de
Liseau, a fiction of the Jews, of the nineteenth century ;" where, placing
the scene in England, and in the present era, the author gives au
imaginary picture of the Polish Jews, at least one or two centuries back,
and containing not the very smallest resemblance to English Jewish life
at any time ; in fact, there is nothing to write concerning Anglo-Jewish
life in the present age. With the sole exception of the ordinances ol
their creed, their households and families are conducted exactly on tht
principles as English households of the same standing.

PERIOD VII. POLISH JEWS. 315

occasion others to look down upon him with contempt. Ho
can retain all the characteristics of his race and creed, and yet
in social, domestic, and individual position, be one with the
children of that land which has received the exiles to her foster
ing breast, and extended the right hand of fellowship to all.
Let us be English men and English women, even while we still
glory in being Hebrews. The union is perfectly compatible,
and it would tend to our social happiness and the consolidation
of our national unity. Would it not render us a firmer, nobler
because a more consolidated mass, if we could forget the dis
tinctions of German and Spanish, and Polish and Dutch, and
only vie with each other to be a noble body of English Jews,
and mark our pre-eminence in the land where we are FUEE ?
Why should there be German and Spanish charities ! Is not
benevolence open-handed, universal, wide-spreading, scorning
earthly distinctions, and only seeking whom it can befriend ? Is
not a Hebrew a Hebrew, in the sight of God and Man — and
why then should we not be brothers? Why will not the
German imitate the Spaniard in some things, and the Spaniard
the German in others, and so forget the idle distinctions of our
captivity, and only strive to become Hebrews as our Bibles
teach, and Englishmen as a love for our adopted country would
dictate ? How glorious would be that consolidation, that unity,
which, the moment a Jew of any land sets foot in England
there to make his home, would hail him brother, and open to
him at once our synagogues and our charities, without one
question as to what congregation he belonged to ! Hebrews and
Englishmen — we may look round the world, but what prouder
titles can be our own !

This may seem digression ; but, as we proceed, we shall find
it not so wholly unconnected with our main subject as it may
appear. Not only are our social and domestic habits infused
with the manners and customs of the lands of oar captivity, but
our mental and spiritual attainments are in some degree advanced
or retrograded, according tc the measure of mental and spiritual
attainments in our Gentile brethren. This is easily explained,
by comparing our positions in Italy, in Russia, in parts of Ger
many, and in the East ; with our position in England, in Ame
rica, in France, and in Belgium.

Italy is still plunged in moral and mental darkness. The
word of God. revealed only to priests, to whom the consciences

516 THE WOMEN OF ISftAEL.

of the multitude are intrusted, is unknown, and, in consequence,
edicts are still at work against us, as oppressive and degrading
as in the middle ages. Russia, under a despot-sovereign, and
unenlightened by the religion Df the Protestant, which, from
considering the Old Testament divine, and permitting its perusal
by the mass, cannot fail greatly to benefit the Jew, entirely
prevents, by a precarious and degraded position, all power of
elevation in its Hebrew subjects ; and on the least, even imagi
nary offences, issues edicts against us as horrible as any of less
enlightened times. * Austria, under Catholic dominion, by a
most extraordinary contradiction, grants a barony to a Jewish
family, and yet, if we are to believe contemporary travellers, so
degrades the Jews as a class, that their condition is little removed
from most abject slavery.

In the East, under the superstitious and oppressive sway c
Mahomedanism, they are still constantly liable to persecution,!
and cruelty too horrible to relate. And what then is the condi
tion of our hapless brethren in these oppressive lands ? Still
faithful Hebrews indeed, willing to die, or worse, to suffer such
horrible mental and physical tortures that death were bliss,
rather than give up one item of their treasured faith ; but the
mind is cramped, the spirit fettered, the soul cannot spring
upwards, in that mental and spiritual communing, only to be
found amongst the free ; and God, more merciful than man,
demands not what His omniscience knows cannot be given.
Enough, they are true to Him, they worship, they love Him.
Tne power to spiritualize and enlighten that worship by rays
of mind, will be granted when His will removes the yoke, now
bowing them to the earth.

In Germany, the state of the religion seems strangely contra
dictory. Our most learned men come from that land. The
spirit of their faith, in some few quarters, appears awaking, or
we could not have such preachers as Gotthold, Solomon, Philip-
son, Hirsch, and others; and yet how appalling is the
indifferentism, the rationalism, which seems to compass, as a
thick mist, the greater portion ! But this is not Judaism ; it has
its origin, exactly as we have stated, in the spirit of the land
where the Hebrews are sojourners. What is the real religion
i»f Germany ? Ask the enlightened Protestant, and he will teJJ

• The late Ukase. t The Damascus Cruelties of 1840.

PB>RIOD VII. FRENCH JEWS. 31?

you ; but too often rank infidelism, indifference, or that religion
which seeks to do away with revelation, and rest on nature
(alas for such delusion !) ; and fearful is this association for the
Jew, just beginning to breathe from the oppressive horrors of
persecution. Better, far, even occasional oppression, so it will
but burst the bonds of that deadening stagnation ; better the
complete and visible distinction of creeds, than that fearful
indifference to all, which appears to charactenze religion in
Germany. But let not the Gentile seek to burden Judaism
with the indifference of the Jews in Germany, or the Hebrew
may, with equal justice, burden Christianity with the indifference
and infidelism of Christians in the same land.

In France, the Jews are free, enlightened, earnest Israelites,
and faithful citizens; and yet, if the writer of the review of the
"Spirit of Judaism" in the "Archives" of March, 1843, spoke
the sentiments of all his countrymen, we should fear that
equality was, in some degree, deadening that national spirit of
religious exclusiveness which should ever mark the Jew.* We
should, indeed, feel and act the part of faithful citizens where
such privileges are allowed us ; but we are not to consider our
selves so completely children of the soil as to forget we are
children of the Lord. That privilege can never belong to the
history of the past, as the writer seems, in some degree,
to suppose. We can never be other than a distinct nation —
His chosen people ; and so, be favored above every nation and
every religion of the world. Surely we can unite this belief
with the feelings of a French or English citizen. We do not
require the sacrifice of the one to fit us for the other; for
the mote we felt that, as Hebrews, we were cherished, equalized,
honored, the more ardent would become our love for the
land granting us these things, the more earnest our desire
to serve her and her children, with heart and hand.

But this absence of perfect nationality, if, indeed, it do exist,

« The following is the passage in question : — " Mais Miss Aguilar
de"passe peut-etre le but, et dans son zele ardent pour le mainUen de
1'esprit de Judaisme, elle neglige parfois trop Pesprit du siecle Les
Juifs, a ses yeux, fbrment non eeulement une secte a part ; ils ferment
aussi une nation a part, une nation captive, et dans Pattente de son Mes
siah ou liberateur. ... La Nationality Juice n'existe plus. Partout et
meme dans les contrees ou on leur conteste encore les droits de Thomme
et du citoyen, les Juit's s'efforcent a prouver qu'ils sontde la meme nation
^ue ceux, dont ils partagent le sol, et ne sent Juifs que (Levant Dieu."

318 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

is attributable, not to imperfection in Judaism, but to intimate
association with a people whose characteristic is light-hearted
gaiety, and whose very religion is devoid of the solemnity of form
and sacredness of restriction peculiar to Protestant lan'ds. The
French, as a nation, are spirituclle, but not spiritual. The free
dom and equality enjoyed by the French Jews, have, to judge
by their literature, decidedly advanced the latter quality.
Mind and spirit are both unshackled ; but it is neither unlikely
nor unnatural, that they should in some degree imbibe the
light spirit of their Gentile brethren, and so appear to divest
their faith of a portion of its more solemn and exclusive attri
butes, though in reality they are earnest and faithful Israelites
still.

But it is in the country of the true, not of the nominal Protes
tant, that the Hebrew is at rest, and where his religion will
attain to greater vitality and strength and spirituality than
in any other land. The reason for this is obvious ; not only
because in real Protestant countries persecution of the Jew is a
thing unheard of, and never has existed from the time it
gained ascendency, but because the Protestant religion, in
its morality, its reverence for the Old Testament, its acknow
ledgment of the Jews as the chosen people of the Lord, its spirit
uality, its abhorrence of all image-worship, comes nearer
the spirit of the Jewish religion than any other creed ; even
whilst in its actual doctrines, that of a trinity, a dying Saviour,
an infinite atonement, and original sin, it is the most widely
opposed ; but actual creed, absolute doctrines of belief, are
of far less moment in a multitude, than the spirit of a faith. If
we present the Athanasian creed to fifty individuals, taken
from mixed ranks, it is a question whether ten out of the fifty
will tell you that they believe it as it stands, or whether
they have not modified it, according to the temperaments
of individual minds and the reasoning of individual studies ; and
yet, they would shrink in horror from being considered any
thing but earnest Protestants and faithful Christians. Actual
belief is individual, but the spirit of a faith is universal,
and, therefore, in relation to the position of the Jews, the latter
is of infinitely more consequence than the former. When
we know and perceive that the whole moral and spiritual system
of the Protestant faith is literally grafted on the moral and
spiritual (not the ceremonial) revelation vouchsafed to Moses,

PERIOD VII. JEWS AND PROTESTANTS. 319

and, as in the latter days, simplified to the meanest understand
ing by our elders ; we must feel satisfied that our position must
be infinitely securer and happier than where the spirit of a
religion is concealed from the mass, and confined to their
(so called) spiritual teachers, or in those lands where the moral
laws are totally distinct from our own. Let me repeat and
enforce the repetition, that by the spiritual system common
to the Protestants and Jews, 1 do not in the very least
allude to doctrinal points, for in our articles of creed we are
utterly, entirely, and necessarily opposed; but simply, to
the mutual belief of immortality, and that heaven \s infinitely
preferable to earth ; to our mutually binding laws, " Thou shaft
love the Lord thy God, with all thy ROU!, and all thy might ;
and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ;" to both being
commanded to practise chanty, modesty, humility, brotherly
love, forgiveness of injuries, unquestioning faith, and child-like
obedience. It would detain us too long to dilate on all
the points on which we agree ; points, it would be well for
both parties to ponder on more frequently, but which too often
become invisible, from the too often haughty arrogance of
the Christian, refusing to us the very privileges, spiritual
and moral, which he has derived from us alone; and from
the more charitable, but equally mistaken, seeking our conver
sion, as the only means of our salvation, and of our attaining a
true knowledge of God, when, from us, and us alone, their
knowledge of the Eternal and their hopes of heaven are
derived.

But while, from the spirit pervading Protestant laws (a spirit
springing from the simple, but important fact that the BIBLE,
the WHOLE BIBLE, is open to rich and poor, prince and peasant,
man, woman, and child), our social position is secure, and we
assimilate more closely to our Gentile brother ; let it not be
forgotten that our spiritual position is begirt with more danger
than when the differences between our holy religion ^ and
that of other nations were more strongly marked. Would
we be Israelites indeed we must study the doctrines and
adhere to the forms, as well as be infused with the spirit
of our faith. We must learn in what we differ so widely from
our Gentile brother that, while we acknowledge the same moral
law, and experience the same spiritual aspirations, there should
be such an impassable barrier between us that we must ever keep

320 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL

apart, guarded as by invulnerable mail, from the constant
attempts to lure us from our creed. The more closely we
examine and study our own faith, and in riper years the more
we look into the religion of other creeds, the more clearly shall
we understand the vital points of difference, and the very many
of agreement, and we shall rise from such study with love tenfold
increased towards our own faith, and charity redoubled towards
our Gentile brethren.

If, then, as all will agree, the cause of the superior enlighten
rnent, freedom, morality, and charity of Protestant lands, origin
ates in the fact of their possessing, and believing, and preaching
the spirit of the WHOLE BIBLE — ours as well as theirs, it is clearly
evident wh\ the Hebrew in such lands can become more spirit
ual, more earnest, and more exalted, mentally and individually.
In the first place he is FREE ! and the mind an 1 spirit, released
from the shackles of darkness and persecution, can once more
resume the native dignity, and mental superiority, and spiritual
aspirations peculiar to his race and creed, and which, through
long ages of oppression, were invisible indeed, but never lost.
In the next he mingles with a people, free, enlightened, spiritual,
moral, benevolent, become so from the spirit of the same moral
law as guides himself; and the atmosphere, congenial to his
native tastes and native feelings, inspires him with a spirit of
nationality and elevation which circumstances have long denied
him, but to which he returns with zest and earnestness, glad to
burst from the stagnating indifference which is the unavoidable
successor of brutalizing persecution.

If, then, as we have endeavored to show, the social and
domestic habits, nay, the very character of the Hebrews must,
during their captivity, in some degree be modified, altered,
infused, according to the manners, customs, and characteristics
of the nations in which we are captives, even while our faith and
its holy ordinances still mark us a people apart, a distinct and
never assimilating nation ; it is forcibly evident that the Israel
ites in England have greater advantages, and more, therefore, is
demanded from them than in any other land (America, perhaps,
alone excepted). Of America, as a nation, we know not enough
tc attempt discussion on her domestic character and habits, anu
how such may improve the character of her adopted children.
The Hebrew advantages in that land, more numerous even than
in England, consist in perfect freedom ; so that neither civil,

PERIOD VII. ENGLISH JEWS. 321

military, nor naval disabilities, interfere with bis elevation in any
art, science, or profession to which his talents point ; thus neither
persecution nor interference can prevent his guiding, not only iiis
public adherence to his religion, but the sanctity of his house,
according to the domestic, as well as social and ceremonial laws
ofMoses°; and he is free to become mentally and spiritually
elevated, and to raise the name of Israelite by deed as well as
faith — these are his advantages in America : and fearful is his
responsibility if he passes them by unused.

But on the character of the English there is no darkness in
our mind — integrity — honor — solidity — reserve, which only-
renders his friendship, when given, more worthy — a lofty spirit
of independence and consciousness of his own position, as distinct
from the radical contemner of differing ranks as respect from
servility — benevolence — domestic virtue which, in either man or
woman, must make home happy — intellect and genius, which
can only breathe in freedom — such are the characteristics of the
English ; and if they fail in the sparkling vivacity and apparent
warmth of the French, the artistic genius and strong passions
of the Italians, the music and metaphysics of the Germans,
surely they have qualities sufficient of their own, to make us
truly love the land, and thank God that He has granted his
captives so secure and blessed a rest. Nobly, then, in England
may Judaism make manifest her spiritual, her elevating influ
ence on the characters of her children ; for the manners and
customs of her Gentile brethren in this blessed land, instead of
infusing characteristics foreign to the Jew, will but forward his
advance in the scale of being, recall every minor moral law,
which oppression had banished, and encourage every elevating,
humanizing, and intellectual power, which, in the eras of perse
cution and darkness, seemed to have departed. The son of
Israel may now cultivate the intellect and genius natural to his
distinguished race. He can now prove, that if ever he were
debased, it was not his religion, but the slavery of oppression
which was at fault ; if ever spirituality seemed to have departed,
torture had banished it from his heart — but that once free — it
was the life, the breath, the glory of his faith ; that without it
Judaism was not Judaism, but a lifeless worship, only rendered
acceptable by obedience in the midst of woe. And what may
not the Women of Israel become in this thrice blessed land »

322 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

Much, ;i,u;h to recall what they have been, and to shadow forth
what the}- will be !

At length we have reached the point at which, throughout
this concluding period, we have aimed, and towards which all
our remarks have tended. In every other country but England
and America, still lingering restrictions, or characteristics pecu
liar to the children oi the soil, may prevent or retard the spirit
ual and domestic graces which are the woman of Israel's own
— and of which, however deadened by circumstances, nothing
can deprive her; but in England and America these can be
cultivated, fostered, and so displayed, as to mark to the whole
Gentile world, our national privileges, our sacred duties, and our
immortal hope. We have seen fiom the very commencing of
our creation, the natural position of the granted gifts, and
inherited failings of our sex. We have looked with an unshrink
ing gaze on every mention of woman in the word of our God,
from the mother of the whole human race, and the ancestresses
of Israel, to the females under the law, and the beautiful captive,
by whom a nation was preserved from death ; we have gone
still further, from the records of Josephus, to draw forth every
mention of our noble ancestors? that we might learn their
domestic and social position at a time when inspired historians
were silent ; we have scanned every statute, every law, alike in
the words of Moses, and in their simplifying commentary by our
elders ; and the result of such examination has been, we trust,
to convince every woman of Israel of her immortal destiny, her
solemn responsibility, and her elevated position, alike by the
command of God, and the willing acquiescence of her brother
man. That IF any laws derogatory and contradictory to the
station assigned her before God and man, by the merciful provi
dence of our Father in Heaven, have sullied our homesteads,
they come from the darkened ages of barbarism and persecu
tion, the spirit of which naturally infused the minds of the
captives, as well as of the captors — and have neither authority
nor weight. They have, indeed, ever been but words ; for if
we scan the Jewish households in every age, we shall find the
mothers, and wives, and daughters of Israel, treated with such
unfailing respect, tenderness, and consideration, as would shame
the homes of many a Gentile land. We can find not the very
faintest evidence of de6asing or restricting laws : and once con

PERIOD VII. EFFECTS OI FREEDOM. 323

viuced, as surely we must be, that in the sight of God the
women of Israel are cherished, loved, provided for, as He provided
for none other ; and in the sight of man, are elevated, respected,
and fostered in every relation of life; must we not think
earnestly and deeply how best to make manifest our own con
viction of our spiritual, social, and domestic responsibilities ;
and by our superiority in holiness, and in every virtue that
makes home happy, and our sex beloved, prove, far more
forcibly than the most eloquent words, the utter falsity of
the charge against us, and that Judaism indeed gives us all
we need.

According to our ancient fathers, whose opinion is evidently
founded on our holy law, the mission of the women of Israel ia
education : and this, even as in olden times, we can still accom
plish. We have written so much on this all-important point in
our notice of Jochebed, and again in the " Martyr Mother,"
that Kttle is needed in addition now : but earnestly we would
entreat our sisters in Israel to compare their lot with that of
those hapless wives and mothers, who, in the middle ages, con
tinually beheld their sons and daughters snatched from them
and forcibly baptized, or murdered before their very eyes ; and,
somewhat later, were compelled to send them to convents and
monastic schools for education, implanting, as they could, tho
religion of their fathers. At the time of their expulsion from
Spain, and when reaching the town of Fez, they hoped their
sufferings were coming to a close, a pirate lured 150 youths on
board his ship, and in the very sight of the distracted parents
set sail, and sold them as slaves in some distant port. In Por
tugal the youth were baptized by force, and drafted off to the
unwholesome island of St. Thomas ; and in the reign of
Emanuel, son-in law of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Jews were
not only ordered to quit the kingdom generally by a certain
day ; but a secret edict issued that all the children under four
teen years of age should be torn from the arms of their parents,
and dispersed through the kingdom to be baptized and brought
up as Christians. The awful secret transpired, and lest it should
be frustrated was instantly put into execution. What woman
of Israel, be she mother, sister, or childless wife, can imagine
the terror of this awful edict — can portray in her fancy, not
only the hapless children torn from their mothers by brutal
•avages, but their mothers themselves, rendered desperate by

824 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

the agonizing alternative, throwing their offspring ii.to well*
and rivers, destroying them with their own hands, and yet not
feel her whole being quiver with the burst of thanksgiving, that
in some lands these awful days are past. Ever and anon,
indeed, comes even now the low groan of Jewish suffering from
distant shores. Damascus, Russia, Mogadore, within the last
seven years, have vied with the oppressive cruelties of long-p.'ist
days ; cruelties at which every mother's heart must quake, and
which bid every woman of Israel cling closer and closer y«t to
those nobler lands that give her a peaceful home, and so
grant the sweet charities of life, and the affections, vitality and

joy-
Even \\nere the tempest-clouds of persecution have passed
away, the spiritual atmosphere for the Jewish captives is dead
ened and stagnated by restricting clauses, which, directly con
tradictory to the spirit of Judaism, must have originated in
former oppressive decrees, although, as the decrees themselves
have been removed (though not their consequences), the reli
gion is falsely supposed itself to be the cause. In some parts
of Germany, for instance, young unmarried females are forbid
den to worship in the synagogues — it being considered indeco
rous to make their appearance there, unless engaged or wedded.
There may be other customs equally enslaving ; but we are
cautious in repeating any but those we know to be true. We
see they are the remnants of oppression, not the ordinances of
the religion, by the simple fact, that where we are free, the
women of Israel take, unquestioned, the place, both in the syna
gogue and in the household, assigned them by our law.

When, therefore, we reflect on these things, and then on the
spirit awakening in England, America, the Colonies, France, and
no doubt in many parts of other lands (though working secretly
and almost unconsciously, as all improvements do at first, we
see it not so broadly flashing as in the above-named lands) ;
shall we not as a body do all we can to forward and confirm
the advantages proffered 1 Fifty years ago, from the still lin
gering dread of exposing our peculiar tenets to members of
other creeds, Judaism, though faithfully followed, and all its
ordinances obeyed, never found voice in our households, much
less in more public places of worship ; we dared not speak or
write of it, lest unwittingly we should offend, and so be exposed
again to the horrors of persecution. Was it mar7el, then, that

PERIOD VII. EFFECTS OF FREEDOM. 32fl

w« were Jews only because our fathers were, and thai the vital
spirit of piety seemed dead within us ? Judging from us at
that time, we do not wonder that some more enlightened of the
Gentiles should pronounce the Jewish religion to be void of all
spirituality, and so a lifeless worship. They could know nothing
of us but what they saw ; and they were not likely to look so
deep as to behold the origin of this stagnation,.in the stupifying
terror and ever present dread of oppressive persecution. But
now, if we do not labor heart and soul to make manifest that
our religion is the most spiritual, the most life-breathing, corn-
fort-giving religion of any over the known world, the fault is
with us, and us alone. We need no longer be Jews because
our fathers were. In the synagogue our religion is taught ; in
our households the Bible is our companion ; our daughters as
well as our sons are instructed as our Great Lawgiver himself
sommanded.

In France, in some parts of Germany, in some of the Colonies,
and in one synagogue of England, girls, as well as boys, are
examined in their faith, and admitted to the beautiful rite of
confirmation ; and this we foresee will gradually extend over all
our congregations. The Hebrew language is now taught, studied,
known, as any other modern tongue. The time may, nay it
WILL come, though it seems a wild dream now, when it shall
again be the language of the Israelites, not alone wherein to
pray, but to converse, and write, as the vernacular idiom of the
lands in which we are sojourners. Our girls, equally with our
boys, are attaining real grammatical knowledge of this most
glorious language, and in their youth are thus imbibing treasures,
which, when in their turn they become mothers, will be imparted
to their children, and so mark them from their earliest infancy,
Hebrews, as well as English, French, or German. To our
daughters, as to our sons, the Bible is unsealed ; and its
explanation is fearlessly given by many a Jewish preacher.
Books of Jewish sacred literature are rising in the vernacular of
the many lands of our captivity ; and the time is gone by when
aan might fear tc call himself a Jew. In the countries so often
quoted, the more a Hebrew respects his creed, the more he is
respected ; the more spiritually enlightened he is in the doctrines,
the ordinances, the commands of his own religion, the more
will he find himself appreciated and valued by the spiritual-
tninded of even opposing creeds ; and the more universal will be

1526 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

his brotherly love, for the less dangerous will be social inter
course.

Will not then the women of Israel do all they can to prove
how deeply and earnestly they feel these things? They are
free now not only to believe and obey, but to study and speak
of their glorious faith. To look themselves within their Bibles,
and read there the foundation for all which we have sought
humbly, yet most heartfully, to bring before them. To find in
that ceaseless fountain of living waters, not alone their privileges
as women of Israel, but all of strength, comfort, peace, immortal
hope, and earthly guidance, which as weak, frail women, they
so imperatively need. Will they not then come there, and
beholding not only their responsibilities and their duties, but,
in the prophets, their sins in the Past and their destiny in the
Future, do all they can to break from the one and forward the
other? To cultivate with heart, soul, and might, all those
spiritual, mental, and accomplished graces which should be every
woman's, and yet more strikingly every woman's who calls
herself of Israel ?

In very many lands of their captivity, it is fully in their power
so to do, even if it were possible, yet more so than men ; for
the ordinances and commands of our holy faith interfere much
less with woman's retired path of domestic pursuits and pleasures,
than with the more public and more ambitious career of man.
Her duty is to make home happy ; her mission, to influence
man, alike in <he relative duties of mother to her son, wife to
her husband, sister to her brother, and, in her own person, to
upraise the holy cause of a religion, which, from its pure spirit
uality and long concealment, is by the multitude misunderstood,
vilified, and charged with such false accusations that only acts
can remove. Something more is needed for the elevation of
our faith, than even making it known through books (though
that may accomplish much). We must prove the superiority
of our guiding law, by the superiority of our own conduct, as
women of Israel, in our own houses.

To obtain this superiority is to become more SPIRITUAL ; for
in that single word every feminine grace and Jewish requisite is
comprised. Let a woman truly and sincerely love her God—
fec4 that his image is in her heart — that she «aa bring Him so
close to her that her every thought, her every aspiration, her
every joy, as well as every prayer and sorrow, can be traced u;p

PERIOD VII. — SPIRITUALITY. 321

lo Him, and we need not fear that she will ever fail in hei
duties, either to Him or to man, in his service or in her home.
Once this spiritual love obtained, and a halo is thrown over her
whole life, be it one of sorrow or of joy. His Law becomes
part of her very being ; she could not disobey it, without dis
obeying the gracious Father and Lord whom she loves better
than herself. She will love all mankind, think evil of none
(without mighty cause), for they are His children, created in
His image. She will love the ties of home, her parents, hus
band, children, brother, and sisters, with intensest and most
endearing love — for He has granted them, and filled her glow- s
ing heart with the sweet emotions which to love in Him creates. -
She will regard death for herself as yet more happy than life,
for then she will be with her God and her beloved ones for
evermore, undisturbed by sin or doubt, or fear or woe ; and for
those she loves, with human suffering indeed— for such we are
permitted and encouraged to feel — but still with the firm con
viction that for them all must be joy, for they are with God,
and in spirit with her still. She will think less of the Grave
on Earth than of the Soul in Heaven. She will feel indeed
the blank within her home, but she will realize in her heart of
hearts the blessed conviction that if Earth has one less, Heaver
has one more, and becomes with each that departs, a dearer,
more longed-for home. She will look on the meanest flower,
the humblest bird, even as on the loftiest things of nature, with
that peculiar feeling which the poet describes in those exquisite

line?

" Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears,
To me, the meanest flower which blows, can bring
Thoughts tnat do often lie too deep for tears :"*

because she feels them the work of her Father in heaven, cre
ated as much for her individual joy and thanksgiving, as for the
multitudes, who in the Past and the Present and Future have
gazed, and will still gaze upon the same.

This is to be spiritual ; this is to be an Israelite ; this is to be /
WOMAN. We are quite aware that many of our English read- J
ers will exclaim, " Why this is to be Christian !" and refuse to
believe that such emotions can have existence in a Jewish heart,

• Wordsworth.

328 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEI

While our Jewish readers will, in consequence, refuse to seek ita
attainment, because if it resemble Christianity it cannot be
^Jewish ; both parties choosing to forget that the SPIRIT of their H
widely different creeds has exactly the same origin, the word of J
;God : whence all of Christianity, save its doctrine of belief^
Originally came.

Let those who deny spirituality to Israel, and declare that it
is only from association with the Christian, and reading Chris
tian books, that we think of spirituality at all — read the moral
ity of the Talmud, even if they can only procure those extracts
in the Hebrew Review ; and unless resolved to retain their
opinion in the very face of conviction, they must acknowledge
that from us all their spirituality came, and that if we are refl
awaking to its sublime call, it is not from association with them,'
but from peace and freedom permitting us once more to honor
the Lord as our God, and giving us those extracts from our
venerable teachers which show us in what light they regard the
ordinances of the Lord. We will quote one passage, even at
the risk of being thought tedious, merely to prove our assertion,
that spirituality was the very breath of our religion ; and how,
in fact, could it be otherwise, when it came direct from the reve
lation of the Lord ?

" Man is to impress his mind, that whatever, he does, is to be
with the intention to glorify his Creator. His rising, his walk
ing, his speech, and all his occupations are to have that aim.
When eating, drinking, indulging in affection, his purpose is not
to be the mere gratification of his desires. His food is merely
to be wholesome and nourishing, far removed from luxury. In
love he is to recollect its end and aim. Even when he liea
down io sleep, it is to be with the intention to arise cheerful
and refreshed for the service of his Creator, and thus, even the
act of sleep will be an act of worship to his Creator, fo • our
rabbies say, Let the aim of all thou undertaJcest be the glory
of the Deity. And thus Solomon says, In all thy ways acknow
ledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."* Again, we are
commanded to associate with the pious and wise, in order to
>arn their ways ; as it is said in the Law, ye shall attach your
selves to Him, you shall attach yourself to everything that leads
to Ifim, sanctity and perfection. And again, after most minute

* Selected from Morality of the Talmud. Hebrew Review, page 23

PERIOD VII. SPIRITUALITY. 329

directions, as to the forgiveness of injuries, and banishment of
•nward resentment, even to its being sinful for man, when he
does a kind action to an injured, to say, ' Take it, I will not do
to thee as thou didst to me,' for it is transgressing the com
mand, 'Thou shalt not resent,' it continues, 'a man ts entirely
to dismiss every feeling of ill-will from his heart and mind, as
the law not only extends to the actual deed, but likewise to the
inward sentiments, and, therefore, the mind must be pure, so that
the actions must fiow from a worthy source? "*

With such writings our own, and ours from centuries long past,
do we need the works of Christian divines to make Israel spirit
ual ? Oh, shame ! shame on those sons of Israel, who, from
pure ignorance, deny spirituality to their beautiful creed, and
report°that we are not a spiritual people ! If we have not been,
oppressive slavery is the cause. If we are not now, in those
nations where we are FREE, the heart shudders at the sin we are
incurring : and, oh ! fearful is it if the Women of Israel neglect
the opportunities now their own, and refuse to become the pun?
spiritual beings, which not only their religion but their sex so
imperatively demands. We fear that with all our efforts to
explain our meaning, we shall still by several not be under
stood ; for spirituality is so exquisite and refined, so subtle an
essence, that to describe, or explain, or teach it, is impossible.
It can only be infused by the earnest desire to possess it, and
by the grace of God. It is so peculiarly woman's attribute, that
without it her loveliest charms, her highest intellect, feels imper
fect. By man it is unattainable to the same extent — unattain
able, in tact, at all, unless infused by the influence of woman—
and therefore do we so earnestly beseech our sisters in Israel to
invite, cultivate, cherish it, till it so becomes a part of themselves
that it pervades their every word, thought, and private deed,
the domestic worship of act and love, and the public service of
prayer and praise, and thus it be infused into their sons with
the very nourishment they give, the caresses of their infancy,
the education of their boyhood. Then, indeed, might man
become spiritual, and in all things fitted for the first-born of the
Lord.

To explain our meaning as to this spiritual essence, which
ihould be indivisible from the woman of Israel, we will refer our

• Morality of the Talmud. Hebrew Review, pp. 59 and 62.

330 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

young readers to some probably favorite authors. Every
single line written by Mrs. S. C. Hall, whether it be a story for
a little child or a three volume novel, a tale for Chambers's
Journal or a sketch of Irish character, is so essentially SPIRITUAL,
that without a single syllable unduly introduced of religion, we
know it must be the religion of God's word, which is the main
spring of her being. Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. Howitt, Mrs. Southey
(Caroline Bowles), Joanna Bailie, are all of the same beautiful
class. On the other hand, Miss Edgeworth and Miss Austin,
two first-rate female writers, are moral, not spiritual, in their
works. Among male writers — Howitt, Wilson (whether in
prose or verse), James Montgomery, Wordsworth, are spiritual
writers; Scott, Campbell, Rogers, and many others, are not,
and yet their writings are as moral and pure as their more
spiritualized brethren's. We are not alluding to either class of
writers as elevating one above the other, but simply to endeavor
by such reference to make our own feeling of spirituality more
clearly understood.

If, then, spirituality is so essentially the vital breath of the

Jewish religion and of woman's loveliest nature, will not every

woman of Israel seek and strive and pray to make it her own,

now that freedom and peace are hers ; and her home, though it

be but of the exile, is not exposed to the awful trials of the Past,

and of the Present in very many lands ? If she looks into the

records of her ancestors — if she remembers Leah, Deborah,

Naomi, Hannah, Abigail, the Shunammite, Huldah, and Esther

— must she nof: feel that spirituality was the natural attribute

of the Women of Israel in the PAST ? and if she carefully studies

\ the prophets, she will find that such will be their attribute in

, \ FUTURE ; and there she will read, that until it is attained by

\ man as well as woman, Israel must remain exiled and captive,

lifer from Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem's God.

We have heard that censures have been passed upon our
work, professing to illustrate the future destiny, as well as past
history and present duties of the Hebrew females, as a presump
tuous allusion to what we can know nothing about. Now, with
all due deference to such critiques, we would say, that unless we
disbelieve the prophets, our Future Destiny is quite as clearly
traced out as her own past history. To quote all the eloquent
passages, prophesying not only our restoration to Jerusalem, but
the circumcision of the heart, and awakening of that spiritual

PERIOD VII. FUTURE DESTINY. 331

religion which will unite us, even on earth, with God, would bo
useless here. We can only refer our readers to the prophets
themselves, and as briefly as may be, condense and indite what
appears to us to be their meaning.

When restored to Jerusalem sin will be purified from the
human heart ; all of stagnation, of hardness, of unbelief, will
have vanished ; we shall not have to struggle with those imper
fections and failings which come between the heart and its God,
and deaden all spiritual worship. We shall all know Him then,
from the smallest to the greatest of us ; there will be no occa
sion to say to one another, " know ye the Lord." Our burnt-
offerings and sacrifices will be again acceptable ; the temple of the
Lord will be re-established on his holy mountain ; and not only
will it be sought by the remnant of Israel, gathered from the
North and from the South, and from the East and from the ,'
West, but strangers will join themselves to Israel, and ^ all
nations will flow unto it, and never more walk in the imagina
tion of their own hearts. The Ten Tribes will be discovered,
and Israel and Judah once again made one. Disease and
suffering will pass away ; even death itself be swallowed up for
ever Our nobles shall be of ourselves, our governors spring
from the midst of us, and the Lord himself God over all the
families of Israel Pastors and shepherds will be granted us
according to the spirit of the Lord, and they will fill us with
knowledge and understanding. Not only will the law and its
everlasting ordinances be restored ; but it will so be written in
our hearts, that we shall never more disobey or fail in its
spiritual observance. There will be no more vain yearnings in
the soul, seeking to spring from its earthly prison to obtain
more earnest communion with its God ; for every soul will be
satisfied with His goodness ; the heavy and the sorrowful will
be so filled with His love, that weariness and sorrow will alike
flee away, and be but names belonging to the Past. And this
spiritual restoration will not be distinct from a return to Jewish
ordinances and Jewish ceremonies, as our opponents believe. 1
know not how any reasoning and believing mind, be his creed
what it may, can peruse the prophet Ezekiel, from the fortieth
chapter to the end, without being almost startled at its close
resemblance to the Hebrew religion ordained by God through
His servant Moses. More extended, indeed, alike in the size^of
the Temple and the Holy Land, as must be, for the reception

332 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

of the multitude, not only of Israel, but of the nations who will
universally flow thither, till the earth overflows with righteous
ness. But however extended, we must perceive that the
prophet divides the land once more into the inheritance of the
twelve tribes ; that the gates of the Holy City all bear the
names of Jacob's sons. The heritage of the sons of Levi is
again to have the service of the Lord. The altars, and courts,
and fountains, are all prepared for the restoration of the holy
sacrifices and offerings, which, in our captivity, God ordained to
cease ; nay, the very number and species of animals for the
offerings are named, the feasts and fasts referred to ; and how,
then, can our opponents attempt to persuade us that the sacri
fices, and offerings, and festivals, are all but types of another
dispensation, and done away with now for ever ? What, then, is
the meaning of this sublime prophecy, if the religion of the
Lord revealed by Moses, ceremonial as well as spiritual and
moral, is never to be restored ? The merit of sacrifices and
offerings consisted, not in themselves, but in OBEDIENCE, and
that obedience, in our restoration, will again be tried, and never
more found to fail, for God himself has promised to remove the
stony heart from our breasts, and replace it with the heart of
flesh, on which love for Him and His ordinances will be
impressed for everlasting.

Faint and feeble is this attempt to portray the destiny
awaiting Israel in his own bright land, and earnestly, entreat-
in'rly, we beseech our readers to turn to the prophecies them
selves, and tracing it there, remember that every consoling
'promise, every spiritual joy, every forgiveness of sin is promised
to all Israel, woman as well as man. Who that believes in
the prophecies can continue to say that the future destiny of the
Hebrew females is a subject unknown, and that therefore it is
presumptuous to allude to it ? To be restored to our own land,
and to the religion of God as Moses taught it, undimuied,
untarnished by a single breath of man — to love the Lord indeed,
with heart, and soul, and might, and our neighbor as ourselves
— to feel no shade, no doubt creep over our minds, and deaden
all of spiritual joy — no human imperfections steal between loving
hearts, and bid discord reign where God ordained all peace — to
feel no weariness, no sadness, but every yearning filled — to be
exposed no more to war, be it of sword or word — to become
risters, wives, mothers, of men who, as the first-born cf the Lord,

PERIOD VII. FUTURE DESTINT. 333

m whatever social rank they occupy, be it prince or peasant,
noble or servant, priest or herdsman, will yet, in the sight of
all the nation, uphold and show forth the glory, and the majesty,
and the mercy of the Lord. This is our future destiny— this
the o-oal to which, as women of Israel, we must press forward,
heart and soul : for no little towards its eventual attainment \
depends on us, weak, frail, insignificant in seeming as we are. .
It is, we believe, the supposition of some that, as God haa
ordained these things, nothing depends on man ; we have only
to wait His time. A long and careful study of his word will,
however, convince that merely to wait is not enough : our own
exertions, our own ceaseless prayers, must hasten the day of our.
restoration, or still it will be postponed. We must return to the
Lord in our captivity, or how will He hear us ? " If they shall
confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their
trespass which they have trespassed against me, and that also
they have walked contrary to me ; and that I also have walked
contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of
their enemies : if then their uncircumcised heart ^be bumbled,
and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity, then
will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant
with Isaac; and also my covenant with Abraham will
remember ; and I will also remember their land.''* And that
covenant was, that as the stars of heaven and the sand of ^the
sea-shore so should be his seed, and in that seed all the nations
of the earth should be blessed, whilst before the Lord it was a
nation for everlasting, and he woul 1 be their god. And again,
still more forcibly — " And it shall come to pass when all these
things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse which I
have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind amongst
all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, and
shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice
according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy
children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, THAT THEN
the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion
on thee, and will return and gather thee/rom all the nation*
whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee; and the Lord
thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed, to
love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy

Wul, THAT THOU MAY8T LIVE/'f

* Levit. xx^i. 40-42. rDeut. xxx. 1-G.

S34 THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

With these eloquent words of Moses before us, confirmed an
they are throughout every prophet, can we doubt a single
moment that the Eternal waits to return unto us till we return
unto him, to release us from captivity, till we acknowledge its
justice by deploring, confessing, and conquering our sins ? We
must know and feel it relates to us noiv, and not to our first
captivity ; for then Babylon alone was the scene of our exile,
and now it is over all the nations that we are scattered. And
what is the first gracious promise proffered to win us to return f
" That our stony hearts shall be circumcised, that we may love the
Lord our God with all our heart and soul, so that we may live, not
only on earth, but in heaven ;" for such is the true meaning of
Moses's words ; and will not this prove to us that to love GOD
stands first of every duty, and hallows every form which, without
such love, is mere mockery to Him, and lifelessness to us ? And
to love God thus is to attain that spirituality which we so ear
nestly conjure every woman of Israel to seek ; for unless she
attains it there is little hope for man, and without it, oh! when will
Israel be restored — when will our captivity be at an end ! We
appeal not to our sisters in Israel merely as women, though that
is in itself sufficient need for the comfort, the blessedness, of a
spiritual worship, but as under God, the influencers of man.
Compare the boy whose tender years have been passed with a
spiritual, a gentle mother, to him who from his earliest infancy
has been thrown on the rude influences of man's guidance in a
public school : follow these boys to manhood, and there will be
little doubt who will most maintain the spiritual, as well as the
ceremonial worship of his fathers, or tend most to uphold the
glory of his God. Oh ! as we would hasten our glorious destiny,
let us ponder well our own responsibilities, and becoming more
spiritual ourselves, infuse the same immortal essence into man !
If we do this, shall we say we have done nothing ? shall we not
uphold the dignity, the beauty, the holiness of our privileges as
women of Israel if we so infuse, so guide, as mothers, that man,
uplifted from his grosser self, so unites the spiritual with the
worldly, the love of God with the dreams of earth, that without
neglecting or despising a single earthly duty or human feeling,
lie forwards the glorious cause of God, and in the sight of the
whole Gentile world stands forth an Israelite indeed ? And not
as mothers only may we do this ; let but the woman of Israel
cast aside the frivolous occupations, the oetty ailings, the love

PERIOD VII. FUTURE DESTINY. 336

of mere pleasure which are sometimes the characteristics of her
sex, and remembering she is a woman of Israel, a daughter of
the Lord, cultivate and love the higher and nobler attributes of
heart and spirit ; let her prove by the whole aspect of her life,
be she young or old, married or single, the cherished member
of a family or lonely upon earth, yet let her prove that she is
spiritual, alike in the cloudless happiness, the elastic enjoyments
of the young girl, and in the quieter pleasures of the matron,
the peaceful calm of the more aged ; that there is a deeper
source than meets the eye ; that all man sees and feels so lov
able is formed from that close communion with her God called
spirituality ; and without one serious word, without one reference
to the subject blended with her being, yet will woman influence
man, and, raising her in his estimation, bid him reverence whilst
he loves, and so gradually become infused with the same lofti
ness of thought and holiness of deed inseparable from spiritualized
woman. His superior reason, his mightier power, his cooler and
more penetrating judgment will dictate the just medium how to
make these noble qualities, imbibed from woman, most useful to
his fellows, most serviceable in the cause of God ; but not the less
will he love and value that weaker sex from whom they are
derived.

To the women of Israel, then, is intrusted the noble privilege
of hastening " the great and glorious day of the Lord," by the
instruction they bestow upon their sons, and the spiritual ele
vation to which they may attain in social intercourse, and yet
more in domestic life. Oh ! that we might hope that we have
not entirely worked in vain ! but that becoming, through these
lowly pages, more sensible of their privileges as W^men of
Israel — feeling that for them, and them alone, the Most High
God deigned Himself to provide a law and take them in their
weakness, their liability to suffering and oppression, under his
own especial care — that instead of degrading and enslaving, the
Mosaic religion, as Moses taught, and as the elders commented
upon, and the people practised, cared for woman as none other
did, or others, too, would have produced their prophetesses :
that to them is intrusted the regeneration of Israel ; from their
instructions, their influence, there must arise men spiritualized
and gifted for the service of Israel and his God — women, fit
helpmates for such men — that on them, in their homes and in
their world depends the manifestation of that spiritual, mental,
26

33f THE WOMEN OF ISRAEL.

and lofty superiority which their whole history marks their own —
that they must prove the falsity of those charges hinted by the
ignorant against their religion and themselves ; that, feeling to
their heart's core these things, they would break from the long
years of slavery and woe, unshackle the spirit from the heavy
chains of indifference which a cessation from oppression origin
ally wove — burst from the prejudices of darkened years, and
stand forth in the face of their nation and the whole world, the
ministering spirits of love, and thoughtfulness, and worth, com
panions of man's intellect and need ; yet seeking not, dreaming
not to vie with him ; beautifiers of home, spiritualizers of earth,
even as at their creation, and in the revelation of His law, the
God of Israel ordained ! And if we can attain to this, shall we
fail ? Oh ! let us press forward in this glorious path ! let us on,
heeding not disappointment, difficulty, or depression. Man
cannot deny us our privileges, cannot banish us from the
heritage of the children of the Lord — for from everlasting wili
Israel endure. " Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun
for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and the stars
for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves
thereof roar — the Lord of Hosts is His name. If these ordi
nances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed
of Israel shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
Thus saith the Lord, If heaven above can be measured, and
the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will cast
off the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the
Lord." And if we are daughters and sisters, wives and mothers,
of a people so beloved, oh ! what does not devolve on us to
forward and proclaim the glory, and the mercy, and the wisdom,
aid the love of Israel's Almighty God !

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Senor Don Juan Valera, recently Spanish minister to our Government,
is recognized as the most prominent literary man of the time in Spain.
He is the author of some eight or ten novels, the most recent and suc
cessful of which is " Pepita Ximenez," which has appeared in eight edi
tions in Spain, and been translated into German, French, Italian, and
Bohemian. Nothing more charming has appeared in recent literature.

A POLITICIAN'S DAUGHTER. A Novel. By MYRA SAWYER
HAMLIN. 12mo. Half bound, 75 cents.

" A Politician's Daughter " is a bright, vivacious novel, based on a
more than usual knowledge of American social and political life.

ALIETTE (La Morte). By OCTAVE FEUILLET, author of " The Ro
mance of a Poor Young Man," etc. 12mo. Paper, 50 cents ; half
bound, 75 cents.

" There is no sort of doubt that M. Octave Fenillet has produced a little book
of immense power, in which the sketches of character are as vivid as if he had
had no moral after-thought in his work." — London Spectator.

" Nobody can deny that M. Feuillet has made a very strong hit in ' La Morte.'
. . . Altogether the machinery of the novel is excellent and the interest admira
bly sustained."— London Saturday Review.

" The development of the characters is most skillful, and while the journal
form into which the beginning and end are thrown imposes special difficulties
upon the author, there is no loss of power in these parts. Perhaps the most
eubtile thing in the book is the exposition, in the contrasted characters of Dr.
Tallevaut and Sabine, of the two ways in which the modern scientific education
may operate ; and of the radical difference in the effect of such teaching upon
one whose mind has been formed under religious influences and one whose grow
ing intellect has been carefully guarded against all spiritual beliefs and doctrines.
The figure of Aliette is the least strongly drawn, yet she is perfectly intelligible.
Sabine is startling, and will no doubt be called unnatural, but it would be un
reasonable to say that a girl with such a temperament, so educated, might cot
grow into such a woman."— New York Tribune.

"Merit of a most unusual kind." — London Athenaeum.

THE DIARY OF A WOMAN. By OCTAVE FEUILLET. I6mo.
Paper, 25 cents ; cloth, 60 cents.

New York : D. APPLETON & CO., 1, 3, & 5 Bond Street.

WOMEN BS
Aguilar ,

1847
Women of

575 A3
Grace,

Israel

1887
1816-